TRON: Legend
by ArkhamGirl
Summary: "She was a fighter, she was a hero, she is... a legend." 798 cycles have passed since the fall of Susan Gifford. Even though she is believed to be dead, her proponents put up resistance against CLU's terror regime. As the impossible happens and a User enters the Grid, there is only one aim left for everyone: Freedom Sequel to "TRON: Downfall" Zuse/OC, OC/OC
1. 1 Memory

**_Author's Note: WELCOME, PROGRAMS! Welcome to my followers who have read this story from the beginning on (_****TRON: Ascension + TRON: Downfall****_) and welcome to the ones who haven't. I'm not mad at you if you are one of the latter, but I'd recommend you to read the other parts, since you'll probably not understand a thing then. No offense. Love y'all ^^ _**

**_This part, the last part, of my story is the longest, most exciting, most violent, most romantic and just MOST F***ING EPIC EVER! _****TRON: Legacy****_ will play an important part in it._**

**_Just one note to this opening chap: during the first paragraph I listened to 'The Grid' from the_**** TRON: Legacy****_ Soundtrack (without K Flynn's voice), since it just fits and is a wonderful beginning vor an epic story like that_**

_**So, my dear programs, ENJOY AND PLEEEASE **__**REVIEW**__**! (The reason why I want reviews that much is not compliment fishing or shit but feedback. I want **__**feedback**__**, to my OCs, to certain chaps, or whatever. I have nothing against criticism, I appreciate it, since it helps me to improve :) so please sacrifice 1 or 2 mins for me and write me a review ^^ thx)**_

**END OF LINE**

* * *

**/Memory/**

"Do you have the bytes?"  
The program spoke quietly, although they hadn't spotted anyone nearby. They stood in a dark alley in a group of four, hustled together closely, since they didn't want anyone to be able to eavesdrop on them.  
"Sure! Here they are."  
The other held up a little bag.  
The first one spoke up again, whispering: "Perfect. So, you..." Er pointed at the third and fourth one. "You affix the thingies three blocks from here. Me and Bader do it here. Does everyone know the codes for sure?"  
All nodded.  
"Well, then..."  
The held out their hands to the middle and the one with the bag distributed the little cubes that where in it. As soon as everyone had the same amount of them, they looked at eachother sternly.  
"Okay, ready to go! Don't let them catch you!"  
Two of them ran off. The remaining programs peeked around the corner of the building next to them.  
"All right, come!"  
They ran over the wide street to a higher building. While one of them stood guard, the other pressed the cubes into the wall. When all where in, a small screen opened in front of him. Hastily, he typed in some orders.  
Suddenly the other spotted a sentry coming around the corner further afar, but alarmingly close.  
"Hey, hurry up, man!"  
"I do!"  
Er moved his fingers as quick as possible and just as the sentry looked over to them, he finished his work. "Got it! Let's scram!"  
The two ran away from the building, away from the sentry, who still stood there, staring after them.  
Meanwhile, the cubes at the wall began to gleam and it clicked, as the just uploaded file, which emanated from them, spread out. Thin long cracks wormed their way up the wall. Only at the top of the building they stopped, and created a web of little cracks, forming a special shape.  
Then it stopped clicking.  
Suddenly the shape on the wall lit up brightly: a triangle pointing down.  
The two running programs looked up, smiling widely at their work. Now everyone could see it, her circuitry sign.  
Susan's circuitry sign.

* * *

One could see it from everywhere, even from up here. No clouds covered the view from the End Of Line Club over Tron City this time.  
While all those programs behind him danced to the music and had their refreshing drinks, Zuse stared at the symbol on the building down there deep in thoughts. He knew it well, like every program on the Grid by now.  
"Did they do it again?", it came behind him, sighing in annoyment. Gem came to a stand next to Zuse. "When will those revolutionaries understand that it is pointless to attach her circuitry sign onto a wall in the city? It is pesky..."  
"You are absolutely right, dear.", he replied without taking his gaze from the luminous triangle.  
"I mean, why do they still adore someone who does not even exist anymore?"  
"Because they are hoping for a miracle, which will never come, of course."  
"Right. It is the same with the Tron signs everywhere. These programs should learn to let go and to not bother us civilised citizens with their unrealistic perceptions, don't you think?"  
He nodded slowly.  
Gem eyed Zuse attentively. He looked like he was totally absorbed in thought.  
"I got to back to the arena.", she finally said. "Getting some things done. Is that okay?"  
"Of course, darling."  
"And..." She stepped closer to him. "Is it also all right with you, if I came here again after the club has closed, so that we can relax together?"  
A grin spread over Zuse's face and he turned to her eventually. "How can you ask, dearest?"  
She smiled seductively. "Then, see you later, Zuse..."  
With these words she tottered away.  
Again he turned to the big window, looking at the bright shining symbol. Then his hand closed tighter around the handle of his cand and he strolled through the club. Some guests he passed compliments about their outfit, nodded politely at others and smiled contentedly at his staff. Everything in the club was going well, even better than ever before.  
After his little walkabout, he stopped at the bar and signified the two DJs up there to boost the beats a little bit with a grin. They nodded and did as they were told, whereupon the programs in the club moved even more.  
Yes, everything was fantastic here.  
"Castor?"  
He turned to Shaddix. "Yes?"  
"He's online.", he said as casually as possible, while wiping over the counter with a white rag.  
Zuse's grin became bitter. He looked to the ground shortly and then up to his lounge. He hated it when someone spoilt his good mood. As he collected himself, he clothed his face in a happy smile again, which he mastered in such a perfect way after all the passed cycles, that even programs who knew him well did not notice that it was fake.  
"Thank you, my friend.", he said cheerfully.  
"Shall we close without you then?", the bartender asked.  
"No, no need for that. I think it will not take long."  
Zuse wound through the dancing programs and went up the luminous stairs to his private lounge, where he threw his glass cane onto the couch on the right side and navigated right to the little bar at the back of the room. He took a glass from under the counter and prepared his favourite drink, totally relaxed. When he finished, he observed the green liquid, sighed and then pressed a button on the screen of the communication console next to the bar.  
Suddenly a to him very familiar voice resounded. "Zuse?"  
"Jarvis!", he greeted his interlocutor with a laugh. "What does my little bootlicker want from me again?"  
By the change of the tone in his voice he recognised, that the program was suppressing his anger, which amused Zuse enormously.  
"Did you see the new creations of the resistance?"  
"How could I fail to notice them?", he laughed, sipping on his drink.  
"I don't know. Maybe the same way you failed to notice when they affixed them?"  
"Since when is it MY task to monitor all activities of the resistance?"  
Jarvis sighed in annyoment. "All right...", he said slowly.  
Zuse grinned widely. Oh, how he loved to tease CLU's sycophant. Wonderful...  
"We could arrest two of the rioters, but they don't want to talk."  
"Of course not."  
"Do you have any indications as to the whereabouts of the resistance head quarter? Any rumors?"  
He licken his lips in thoughts. "Did you check the clue from last time?  
"Yes, but we could only seize some emptied databases."  
"Hm..." He let his index finger revolve around the rim of the glass. "Unfortunately, there has not been any gossip about the resistance lately..."  
"I thought so." Jarvis' voice lit up again. "I really can't understand sometimes, why CLU refers to you as his best informant. You are so useless."  
Zuse shook his head, smirking. Did this twit really think he could offend him? "What was that? I could not understand you, my friend. Repeat it again, please.", he said in a syrupy tone and put the glass down.  
Jarvis' answer came hesitatingly. "Uh, you are... are useless..."  
"I still cannot understand what you are saying, my dear. Maybe your console is faulty. I only hear CHRRR."  
"Zuse, stop it!"  
"Pardon?"  
"I have to ask you some more questions, so stop it at once!", Jarvis hissed.  
Zuse slowly went over to the screen. "What?"  
"Stop. It!"  
"I... ca...der...and..u" Zuse had to suppress his own laughter.  
"Zuse, I warn you!"  
"Mu...go...fline"  
"ZUSE!"  
"Bye, dear!"  
"ZUSE! I WILL-!"  
There he tipped on 'Cut Connection', the voice broke off and the screen became dark again. Zuse sighed deeply and whispered with a smile: "Me too, Jarvis, me too..."  
He closed his eyes, leant with his forehead against the wall and recalled the just conducted dialoge in thoughts. He didn't know why exactly, but somehow it raised his spirits. Wether it was due to the badinages or to the circumstance, that he didn't have any informations for CLU this time, he didn't know. The fact was that he always felt tired after such a conversation, no matter how they ended. And he always felt a bit more torn. He'd love nothing better than to have a sleeping cycle now to get rid of these feelings, but he couldn't. He had to meet his obligations.  
He opened his eyes again, grabbed his cane from the couch and put on his unmistakeable smile, before going down to the club, where he partied boisterously until the closure.

* * *

"You were extraordinary, boys! As usual."  
The two DJs gave the cheerfully grinning Zuse a nod and waved at him as they walked into the elevator.  
"See you tomorrow, boss!", Shaddix said after hugging him shortly and followed them.  
"Until tomorrow, my friend..."  
As soon as the elevator doors had closed, Zuse finally let his fake smile fall. He did dance, flirt and drink the whole time, indeed, but internally he still felt as exhausted as he did after the conversation with Jarvis.  
Thoughtfully, he turned around and stepped to the big window at the backside of the club.  
Far below he spotted two programs in long black coats with orange circuitry colour on the roof of the building, which had been marked by the resistance with the big circuitry sign, holding sticks to the luminous surface and letting it disappear piece by piece. Then the light of the symbol flickered and suddenly it went entirely black.  
Zuse lowered his look sadly.  
How? How could it still hurt so much after so many times?  
Slowly he took his disc from his back and sat down on a small seating accommodation next to the window. He held it in front of himself, took in a deep breath and activated the memory.  
'_Pink? Why the fuck is my hair PINK?_?'  
Smiling, he exhaled.  
'_I wanted to see how it looks like on you!_'  
He moved his lips perfectly synchronous to what was said. This memory he knew inside out. How often had he watched it already? At least a thousand times. And he always had to laugh at it.  
Even after 798 cycles. Back then he had watched all of his memories of Susan the first time, in order to forget the pain that her death had caused within him.  
CLU had sent him a message back then, that his sentries had found her code in one of the databases of honour of a little resistance organisation in Argon City, which got wiped out a long time ago. Her name was listed under the heading 'Derezzed'. The club had to be closed for more than 20 millicycles. It had been the first time in his entire life, in all this time he had been here on the Grid, that he had cried. Though, he had shifted off his grief as soon as possible, had put on his fake smile again. Nobody should notice that he had been totally devastated.  
'_Calm down... precious_.'  
Zuse cocked his head.  
He had loved her humour. He had loved so much about her, but he never told her, had been too much of a coward to do so. Already at his own activation, his birth, he had known that he didn't want to regret anything in his whole life, and he never did until the day he had sent Susan to Argon.  
After the message of her death he had tried to forget her at first, had distracted himself with various companionships like Gem, but it just didn't work. Especially the resistance here had made it difficult for him. They had informed themselves about her since the famous fight in the arena when Arris got revealed as Susan, which was known as 'Her Fall', and had begun to spread her and Tron's circuitry sign all over the city about 790 cycles ago.  
Much to CLUs chagrin. He had expected every resistance to decompose after 'Her Fall', since Susan had lied to them after all. The revolutionaries, though, had celebrated her, adored her. And they still did. The copy of a User... She had become a legend.  
Even after the news about her death had gotten around, the revolutionaries had refused to accept it, believed in a conspiracy, that all of it was just a mesh of lies.  
But Zuse knew the truth. He wished, he could believe too, wished, he could still possess hope that she was alive. Though, after more than 500 cycles of not hearing anything from her, not receiving any sign of her survival, had passed, he had been forced to abandon all hope.  
Zuse twisted his finger around anti-clockwise to select a previous memory. One of his favourites.  
'_What is your name? And she would answer...?'_  
'..._Susan_.'  
He stopped the memory and looked at her face.  
Her soft smile, the twinkle in her eyes, back then as he'd seen her the first time. He had thought that this program had had a quite interesting appearance, with her uncommon clothing, the brown CCR t-shirt and the blue jeans, and the unreadable expression in her eyes. Now he regarded her as the most interesting woman he had ever met. The most interesting being on the entire Grid.  
As he was looking at her, the corners of his mouth fell. Everytime he watched memories of Susan he felt marvellous at first, embedded into these good feelings from back then, but then... Then he always reached the point at which he became fully aware of the fact that he will never be able to touch this body, this hair, this beautiful face again. Never.  
He furrowed his brow, closed his eyes, intently trying to keep his pain from breaking out of the box he had locked it up in such a long time ago.  
Suddenly there was the hiss of the opening elevator doors.  
Quickly, Zuse put his disk on his back again.  
Gem tottered towards him with a content smile on her full lips. "I'm sorry. It took me longer than I thought... Did you miss me?"  
He smirked at her. "I just sat here all the time, longingly waiting for you, my dear."


	2. 2 Revolution

**/Revolution/**

He watched his comrades attentively.  
After they had received an anonymous tip that their storehouse, their dwelling, would probably get ransacked by CLU's troops soon, they now tried to bring off all goods and databases, which could hint at individuals of the resistance. They hurried, since 'soon' was a very vague indication and they wanted to avoid an encounter with their opponents by all means. They were good at fighting, indeed, but CLU had enhanced his force levels the last hundreds of cycles because of the increasing number of revolutionaries. The Black Guards had become the most dangerous and feared unit on the Grid since takeover of the leadership of Rinzler many cycles ago. The members of this resistance here knew that they would have no chance against them.  
Therefore, there were no hassles now, no 'Who said YOU were the boss here?!' when Bartik, who had a better overview of the resources and virtual information through his compiler nature than any other here, had told the others what to do. Quite the contrary, they had been glad that someone had assumed control so quickly, since this tip had frightened and rattled them all terribly. So it was too good that there was someone who was able to keep a cool head.  
Now Bartik was sitting there, checking with his concentrated gazes if everyone did the right thing.  
There he heard something crash. He turned his head quickly and spotted a program, hastily picking up the discs that had been in the box it had dropped. Bartik came over to help the nervous program.  
"Stay calm.", he said in a soft but resolute tone.  
"I try... but not all of us can stay as relaxed as you..."  
Bartik sighed, while putting some of the discs in the box. "Believe me, noone here is relaxed. We must not let the fear control us, but also not suppress it. It should serve as incentive, in order to protect our live and those of all others..."  
The program stared at him in amazement. "Wow... That was... really good! Maybe you ARE the born leader."  
"No, no!", he laughed. "This saying isn't mine."  
"Whose is it then?"  
He paused shortly. "It's... Susan's."  
The program looked at the ground sadly. "Oh yeah, I forgot that you fought in her resistance once..."  
"Yes, I did..."  
Bartik remembered exactly. He had been present at the founding of one of the first resistance groups that had not been headed by Susan, SUSAN herself, officially but she was still treated as a leader, since she had trained the members and coordinated their first 'missions'. At that time she had been known as Arris. Nobody would have guessed who, or better WHAT, she really was. But ever since his first little mission for the resistance, Bartik had known that she was different, the born leader...

_Bartik walked along beside two others in excitement.  
He and an other program of their organisation called Kyto had been chosen by Arris, the champion of the games, to sabotage the monitoring system of two watchtowers, so that their spies would have an easier job. At first he had felt honoured to undertake such a task, since he wanted to prove himself, now, though, he trembled in every limb. What if something went wrong? What if other programs would get derezzed due to him? What if HE would get derezzed?  
They reached crossroads and stopped there.  
Arris looked at both of them. "So, you know what you have to do?"  
The two nodded.  
"Alright. I don't want to detain you any longer. I'm sure you'll get the job done perfectly!"  
Kyto smiled and turned around to proceed to business. Bartik, though, stood still, taking a deep breath. Then as he wanted to follow his comrade, Arris held on to his arm.  
"Kyto, please prepare you light cycle in the meantime, yeah?", she said in a friendly tone.  
He followed her instruction instantly.  
She looked into Bartik's dark eyes. "At the training I had the feeling you were full of vigor and confidence... What's wrong now? Are you okay?"  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine...", he lied and could hear how weird he sounded himself.  
But Arris didn't reproach him, as expected. She smiled at him in a kind way and lowered her voice, so that only he could hear, what she was saying. "Listen. Fear is the most natural feeling there is. It isn't bad to be scared at all, it is totally normal. One should just know how to deal with it. Y'know, we must not let the fear control us, nor suppress it. Fear should serve as incentive, in order to protect our live and those of all others. As long as it's a welcome guest to you, but doesn't gain the upper hand, everything is in balance. Okay?"  
He gave her a fascinated look. "O-Okay."  
Her smile became brighter. "Great. I'm sure you'll make it. Just heed what I told you. I trust you two." She looked over to Kyto, who had just checked his bike again. "Ready to rumble, Kyto?"  
He held up his thumb with a wide grin.  
"Well, then.." She looked into Bartik's eyes again and before she left, she said: "Good luck, guys!"  
Kyto came to a stand next to Bartik, who looked after her.  
Before that he had never known, what he was supposed to think ahout her, but now he saw why the others wanted her to help the resistance so desperately.  
"I'm happy that she's with us...", he said.  
"Yeah." Kyto took a deep breath, while staring at the smaller becoming figure as Bartik did. "She's special..." Then he turned away from her and strolled over to his light cycle. "C'mon, let's go."_

"Man, it would be so much easier with her... If Susan was here, we probably would have hunted CLU down 500 cycles ago...", the program that lifted the now filled box up again interrupted his thoughts.  
"Yeah, maybe..."  
Suddenly a scream sounded, which ended with an electronic noise.  
There the next screamed: "THEY ARE HE-*KRCHHH*!"  
Frightened he spotted two Black Guards at the back of the hall that hurled their discs into his direction.  
"WATCH OUT!", he shouted, as he threw himself and the other program to the ground. When he looked up again, he screamed: "ALARM! EVERYONE OUT OF HERE!"  
Then he bobbed up, grabbing the arm of the other and ran as fast as he could. Again he heard the buzzing of a disc and suddenly the arm he had held was gone. While running he looked over his shoulder, seeing how the program he had talked to earlier became a heap of cubes.  
He had to get out of here. But first...  
Bartik turned left sharply into a narrow impasse, where a console stood in. Hastily he put his disc into the input of the console and frantically tipped on it.  
"Download started", a soft voice of a woman announced now and a little beam on the screen in front of him slowly filled with light.  
Once more a scream sounded and Bartik saw some of his collegues running past the impasse.  
"C'mon, c'mon, COME ON!", he hissed anxiously.  
A *BLUM* signalised him that the download completed. He grabbed his disc and again ran for his life. As he looked back, he recognised that the Black Guards and other sentries didn't follow him and the other two survivors.  
They just walked over to one of the consoles in the Hall.  
Jarvis, who had stood at the back the whole time, only viewing the spectacle instead of taking part, opened a screen and immediately found the wanted data.

/SOLAR SAILER DETOUR - CODE 4

He held his hand up to his war, activating the communication line to CLU thereby. "We have it."

* * *

"Ah, Zuse! To what do I owe the honor?", CLU asked in an amused tone, when he saw the furious program marching in.  
"You erased them all!", he shouted, coming to a stand before CLU now.  
"Oh, not all of them. I think three survived."  
"Is that supposed to be your justification?!"  
CLU's smile fell. "Why should I have to justify myself?", he said darkly. Then his mood lifted again and he grinned maliciously. "Besides, why do you get so upset anyway? YOU have been the one who led me to them!"  
"I thought you would arrest them like the last ones, not butcher them in a massacre!"  
Zuse desperately tried to control himself. He wanted to go for CLU's throat, wanted to let him feel the pain of his victims, if there wasn't his bodyguard Rinzler standing next to him, even slowly going into fighting position now.  
"Since when are you so sensitive, man?", CLU laughed. "Are you relenting? Do you want to void our alliance after almost 800 cycles?" He took a short break, before adding threateningly: "... putting your club and your own life at risk?"  
Zuse glared at CLU, who was standing on a small platform in the orange room. "I am not afraid of you.", he hissed.  
"Of course not! Why would you be? I'm absolutely pleased with your work."  
CLU eyed the program in white, which was now clenching its fists. It amused him to see how Zuse tried to act morally, but failing miserably in doing so, since he just always thought of himself first. He was an egoist, who made a profit from any information he received. Not like him, who was always putting the concerns of the citizens of the Grid before his own.  
"They were members of a resistance, Zuse. Such programs have only of terror on their mind. Their death was essential for the development of the perfect system. They are dispensable. So, stay cool, man."  
"The system is already taken to its maximum potential...", Zuse countered, forcing himself to calm down.  
CLU smiled. "Not all parts of it. But we'll carry that off soon...  
Zuse snorted and looked away. There he spotted a screen in front of one of the here working programs, showing something interesting. His anger flew away in a split second and yielded to his relentless curiosity.  
"Is this what I assume it to be?", he asked, pointing at the screen with his glass cane.  
"What do you me-?" CLU's smile faded. "That's none of your business! And now go and take care of your club!"  
Zuse grinned and turned to got, but stopped after a moment, turning to CLU once again. "I might be of help."  
"No, thanks. Just. Go."  
"As you wish... But you ought to know that I already heard a lot about the Masterkey. I believe, I could procure it way faster than..." He gave Jarvis, who had been standing next to CLU the whole time, an amused look. "... your inept dogsbodies."  
Jarvis wanted to protest, but CLU hushed him with a quick gesture of his hand. He looked at Zuse through narrow eyes. "I'm searching for that since Flynn's disappearance. Why should YOU of all programs provide the means to bring me the Masterkey?"  
"Well, I did not devote myself to this topic directly. I thought the rumours about it were just absurd gossip, though, I see now that even you are looking for it..." Zuse stepped up to CLU, positioning himself right next to him. "How about a deal?"  
CLU looked Zuse over. "Go on."  
"In case I enter into possession of Flynn's disc before you, I'll give it to you and you give me... something... equally valuable."  
"And what would that be?"  
He licked his lips in excitement. "How about control of the city?"  
CLU laughed out loud. "You really think I would gamble for Tron City, the capital of the Grid?! Forget it!"  
Zuse's grin became wider. "Are you relenting, CLU?" He stepped off the platform, turning to go, while speaking: "Interesting how sure the 'liberator' is of his ground. Does not want to risk anything, although he has an advantage of hundreds of cycles..."  
Shortly before he reached the exit, he heard CLU call behind him: "Wait!"  
Zuse smiled widely and turned around.  
CLU walked over to him and came to a stand in front of the program in white. He paused for a moment, then held out his hand. "Deal. But I tell you... you don't have a ghost of a chance."  
"We'll see..."

* * *

"And?", Zuse perceived Gem's voice, after he stepped out of the central office. "How was it?"  
Zuse grinned triumphantly. "Marvellous, my dear."  
She linked arms with him and together they strolled to the End Of Line Club.  
Zuse looked at Gem from the side with a light smile. He liked it how she dealt with his business. She didn't care for details, didn't quiz him, so that he had to think about it unwantedly. The only thing she always wanted to know was if it had worked well or not. At the latter she was always there to comfort him.  
Shortly after he had sent Susan to Argon, Gem had come to him and he had been so glad about it. She had asked him, how Susan and especially he was doing, since she had seen him, Shaddix and the DJs carrying her, whose state had been extremely critical, out of the arena. Zuse had been sceptical at first, but since she wasn't asking for details, just wanted to know if he was fine, he had been honest to her. She had also noticed, though, that he had felt quite gloomy, because of the thing with CLU and immediately had tried to cheer him up.  
No questions. Just pleasure. Exactly, what Zuse had needed back them and still needed now. He was very grateful that she kept company with him so frequently, since he had been devasted the last 798 cycles enough times, because of Susan's death or betraying those resistance groups. Although... It was just some kind of superficial morality, actually, that made him believe, that the death of revolutionaries would be something bad. Internally, he hated them anyway. For disturbing the peace, for causing trouble and especially for treating the Users like gods.  
Since the Purge Zuse's attitude towards Users had changed. He had stopped admiring them and, most importantly, he had stopped trusting them. He felt betrayed by them. Why hadn't the Users done anything against the extermination of the ISOs? How could they allow that all of his friends had gotten executed on the streets, without a trial, without mercy? And now... If Susan hadn't been so blinded by her belief in Users, CLU wouldn't have wanted to kill her, she wouldn't have had to flee to Argon and probably wouldn't have... died.  
The Users have never done anything for him. Even his own activation he held against them sometimes. If Flynn didn't mess things up, everything would be like in the old times. The User only had caused him much suffering... and therefore Zuse hated them.  
The resistance... These programs believed in Users.  
CLU had been right in one point: They were dispensable.

* * *

Bartik passed the last bottle of energy.  
The three survivors of the massacre had escaped to the lowest of levels, where they still feared for their lives, since they were running out of supplies, but couldn't come out of their hideout. Sentries patrolled constantly.  
They only had one hope: An outdated console they had found and Bartik's ability to send signals to other resistance groups around the Grid. Even though the various groupings weren't fond of eachother, they desperately needed their help now.  
So, Bartik had sent a message to all of them: "To all resistance groups of the Grid. There had been a massacre in our organisation, a group of revolutionaries in the fourth level of Tron City. We are the last three survivors. And we're stuck in the lowest level. We urgently need help, we're running out of energy... I repeat: We're going to DIE if noone comes to rescue us! Please help us!"  
They already waited 2 millicycles, without receiving an answer.  
'Of course they don't want to help...', Bartik thought.  
The resistance groups were scattered, although they only differ in a few points. If they just would ignore that and unified... Only then they could stop CLU. But that won't happen. Not without Tron. Not without Susan. Unfortunately, both were dead.  
"I'm so tired...", the female among the survivors sighed.  
"Rest for a little bit. We will make sure that you don't derezz in your sleeping cycle.", Bartik answered.  
The woman smiled and closed her eyes.  
But also Bartik fought with himself. He could barely keep his eyes open, just as the other of the three, whose head repeatedly fell forward, just to jolt up immediately afterwards.  
Bartik looked at the two programs next to him.  
Why are they doing this? Why did someone risk his life just to take a stand against CLU? For the sake of being a revolutionary? No, that couldn't be it. It was the Users, who motivated them. They had created them. They gave them strength. Flynn had done so mich for them, had dedicated his life to them and CLU just destroyed everything. The resistance members fought for freedom, wherefore there was no space in CLU's 'perfect' system. They fought for the friends they had lost. And for all, who had disappeared in the last centuries.  
Yes, they were doing the right thing. That they could die here, was a risk they were willing to take, even at their first day as revolutionary.  
Suddenly a high beep rang out, letting Bartik shoot up. He hadn't even noticed that he had closed his eyes, but now he was wide awake again, just as the others.  
"What was that?", the woman asked nevrously.  
The other looked at Bartik, frowning, and hurried to the old console then. He sighted the screen, raising his brows.  
"We have a response from... a solar sailer." The program looked at his friends with an amazed expression. "Help is on the way."


	3. 3 Alter the Mood

**_Author's Note: I just wanna thank you, _Pirateweasel_, thank you so much for your review spürte opening chap :D it was extremely motivating for me! Hope you'll like the following chaps too ^_^_**

**_And now ENJOY, programs, AND KEEP WRITING REVIEWS!_**

**END OF LINE**

* * *

**/Alter the mood/**

He moved to the music, laughed and enjoyed the evening in the club. Here he could abandon all his fears, his grief and forget that there actually was something bad in his life.  
Zuse loved his club and he would do everything for its existence. Even if it meant that he had to form an alliance with a program who was such an anathema to him. Therefore, he never had bigger scruples when looking into the eyes of members of a resistance group, promising them to speak to Zuse or that he would surely help them, just to educe more information from these programs. He didn't even have serious pangs of conscience when picking up rumours about the base of various resistance organisations and instantly conveying them to CLU after closing the club.  
Ecxept when, as is so often the case, the thought of Susan sneaked into his mind. He could literally hear her voice, how she told him that he was doing the wrong thing. Thus, Zuse sometimes had to force himself to think of her death, just to be able to persuade himself that his decisions were right, that with Susan every program who could be disappointed by him, had died. Still... In some moments the memories of her User-believing mind plagued him so much that he had to do something for the resistance, help it in some way, which was why he had sent an anonymous message to this resistance group that CLU's forces would come soon after reporting their location to CLU just a few millicycles ago. Also, his short outburst of rage in the central office counted to those weak moments.  
But now, being in his own club again, Zuse could recharge at this electrifying music around him and every bad feeling bounced off of him.  
From dancing all out of breath, he leant over the bar. "Some shot, Shaddix!", he panted with a smile.  
He played with his glass cane, while the bartender mixed him a yellow-glowing drink. Thanking, Zuse accepted it and emptied the glass in one go. He felt great and looked over the dancing programs, totally relaxed. After a while, his eyes rested on a female program that had turned the back to him and was moving gracefully to the dark rhythm. Her middle-length hair war black and her skin, which was covered by her equally black suit almost entirely, was pale, but not as much as of the most other programs. She turned around, so that he got to see her front. Her attire seemed to be some kind of fighting suit with white circuitry colour. The bottom half of her face was hidden behind a dark cloth, only her eyes, that she kept closed while dancing, were to see.  
Zuse frowned. Something at this program attracted him enormously. But what exactly?  
There she lifted her lids, looking directly into his eyes.  
It was like a slap in the face.  
Suddenly everything felt so much slowlier, whereby the eyecontact seemed to last an eternity.  
These eyes... It felt like her gaze was piercing him. Zuse knew these eyes well.  
As if he was in trance he walked over to the dancefloor, winding through the programs, though, when he reached the spot he had headed to, she was gone. Frantically Zuse glanced around. Where was she?  
There he recognised her at the bar, observing him with her thrilling gaze.  
_The programs around him vanished into thin air. The club was empty. There was only him and her._  
The cane slipped out of his hands, fell to the ground and _burst_. Sowly, he approached her without Interruptionen the eye contact even once. When he came to a stand in front of her, he wasn't able to bring out a word. A lump in his throat forbad any tone to escape.  
Then she pulled the cloth off, exposing her wonderfully familiar face in doing so.  
"Did you miss me?", Susan asked, smiling.  
He could barely think, let alone speak. After half an eternity, he finally brought forth a weak: "Susan...", reaching out to touch her cheek.  
She gently put her hand on his. "Come closer...", she breathed.  
He didn't budge, only put his hand down again. He could only stare at her. It couldn't be true... She couldn't be here...  
Though, when he saw her sad expression, he all his doubts disappeared.  
His eyes filled with tears and he fell to his knees, while taking her soft hands into his, holding them to his face.  
"Susan... my lovely Susan...", he blubbered out again and again.  
"_Calm down, precious.._.", she said in a smooth voice and lifted up his chin, so that he could look into her eyes again. "I'm here with you."  
For a moment he was just looking at her, marveling at her light smile through watery eyes. She was so beautiful...  
Zuse stood up and took her face into his hands.  
"Susan...", breathed and then longingly squeezed his lips onto hers.  
_But there she broke to pieces under the touch. Her body splitted and horror-stricken Zuse watched himself getting cracks too and screamed._

* * *

Soaked in sweat, he abruptly sat up. His breathing was fast and he felt his whole body shiver. Zuse looked around quickly.  
He lay in a white double bed in a big, dark room. Gem's apartment. He was in Gem's apartment. Next to him he spotted her, half-naked and slumbering peacefully.  
Zuse put his hands over his eyes, trying to force himself to calm down, though, when he noticed that he wasn't able to, he got out of bed and staggered up to a an other room. He closed its door behind him and turned on the lights.  
The dazzling white around him hurt his eyes. He squinnied, feeling his way forward to a washbasin. When he finally got used to the light, he looked into the mirror in front of him.  
The shiny trails of tears on his cheeks were clearly recognisable and sweat still ran down his forehead.  
Zuse closed his eyes again, taking a deep breath.  
He should already be used to such nightmares. He already had a fitful sleep for more than 500 cycles, kept a sleeping cycle of only 4 hours, 6 at the very most, than the normal amount of 8 hours, and his nightmares revolved around one topic exclusively: Susan.  
Susan, Susan, Susan, SUSAN!  
Zuse snorted with rage and began to massage his temples, in order to let his bits come to rest and his headache disappear.  
So many times he had toyed with the idea of deleting all of his memories on Susan. It would be so simple. So tempting. One touch of a button and all his pain would be history... Though, he couldn't. He MUST NOT. He must not forget her. These memories were the most sorrowful, indeed, but at the same time the most beautiful he actually had.  
Besides, it had its advantages that he didn't sleep much. Thereby, he could get far more things done, but... these dreams sometimes distracted him, especially if they're seeming as realistic as this one from earlier.  
Zuse looked into the pale eyes of his reflection again.  
Would he ever be able to accept it? Her death? No. Probably not. Forever, he would watch the memories of her, forever dream of her, would never find someone as interesting as her. He was aware that the pain would only die down when it was his own end too, when he eventually got derezzed like her.  
More or less calm, Zuse now leant with his back against the wall, deeply breathing in and out once.  
Distraction would be hard to find after such an intense dream, but he had to try. It would be a blessing to be able to think about some other topic than Susan now, than the touch in the dream, whose sensation still lingered in his fingertips.  
Then a thought struck Zuse's mind.  
The masterkey. If he found it before CLU did and he kept his promise... HE, Zuse, would be ruler of the capital. HE would decide what was permitted and what not, would finally spread the truth about the ISOs, about Tron, about Susan. HE would improve life on the Grid and take it to new glory...  
Yes, he had to beat CLU to it. But there was one problem: CLU had an advance of about 950 cycles. He already had the chance to investigate the facts, to find evidence Zuse would never even think of. On the other hand, Zuse had gathered much information from chattering programs in all those cycles. But was it enough?  
He took a deep breath again and then resolutely opened the door. By the incoming white light he discovered the tailcoat-like part of his coat lying on the ground. He picked it up quietly, put it on and grabbed his luminous glass cane. Before he left, he paused for a moment, eyeing the sleeping Gem.  
Should he unveil his plans to her? Would it change anything in their relationship if he had gained control of the city? Would she be with him because of self interest only? Or was this already the case, since she knew how much influence Zuse had?  
Zuse shook his head lightly.  
Her attitude was totally irrelevant, as long as she offered her services to him as often as he required them. She was a very likable program to him, but... she was no Susan.  
He took his gaze from the sleeping siren and left the apartment at a brisk pace.  
CLU knew more than him. He needed an advance. And Zuse already had an idea where to get it from.

* * *

Five programs had come to their rescue.  
As soon as they had spotted Bartik and his two friends, they had connected their discs with the three exhausted ones and provided the necessary energy, without hesitating, without grimacing. Afterwards, three of them were swarmed out to become familiar with the environment, firstly, and secondly to get even more energy.  
Bartik admired their discipline. Their severe expressions. They knew exactly what they did. The resistance group he had been a member of... it was nothing. These programs here, THIS was the resistance. Organised, disciplined, determined. An almost indestructible troop.  
"So, what's going on here? Situation report. Are there any other resistance organisations?", one of the reenforcement programs, who was obviously the leader, since it had issued commands all the time, asked. She had long white hair, wore black clothes and her skin was cluttered with fluorescent tattoos.  
"Yes, there are more... But they actually had nothing to do with eachother. Some are even hostile towards each other...", Bartik answered as properly as possible, in order to make a professional impression.  
The woman laughed. "As I see it, most of the programs here in Tron City still don't get how bad the Grid's status really is since CLU seized control and don't recognize him as the true enemy thereby. But we had this problem in Argon too many cycles ago... Which organisations are the strongest?"  
"Uhm... What exactly do you mean with strong?"  
"Which of these groups are serious with the resistance? It's mostly the ones who have already lost members."  
"Hm... Well, we're serious. I mean, we're only three, but our resistance has sabotaged some military vehicles in the past..."  
The leader looked to the ground. "Sounds good... But if we want to change things, we need more. We need all. Every revolutionary, every rebellious program in the city. And they have to work together."  
"Well, that won't happen, I guess...", he sighed. "Even their Leaders are too proud to cooperate, let alone accept help or work together with others!"  
A moment of silence followed. Both Bartik's friends and the others thought about it. Then one of the reenforcement programs said: "What about this Zuse?"  
"What about him?", Bartik asked in surprise.  
"Don't they say he helps revolutionaries?"  
The commanding program stroke over her chawline in thoughts. "Plus, he's said to have immense influence..."  
"Yeah, but... it's damn hard to get to him.", Bartik noticed. "If one wants to speak to him, one has to appeal to Castor in the End Of Line Club first..."  
"This should't be a problem."  
"Sounds confident..."  
The program gave its comrades a nod. "Our unit can be very persuasive." Then it looked back to Bartik. "But for now we have to maintain a low profile. That's our policy."  
"And what does that mean now?"  
"It means..." The woman pulled the hood of her suit over her head, looking at one of the men of her troop who did the same, and turned to Bartik again. "The three of us go there together."

* * *

At the initial difficulties he realised that he hadn't done that for a long time. But after the first attempts he had the hang of it again.  
Zuse kneeled in front of a screen which got projected by a small cube he had pushed into the wall earlier. The cube was designed by himself. It was a little program which could expand through midsize distances and, as a result, display all information of the surrounding data storages, wether it was ordinary info-consoles in the streets or, which Zuse was mich more interested in, the main storage system of CLU's central office. On the screen the information was depicted as ciphers, wherefore Zuse wore luminous transparent glasses, which looked more like a glass ribbon streched over his eyes, that translated these codes, illustrating them in normal datasets.  
He sighed. He already examined the 22nd entry to the topic 'Masterkey', but it was only archived data, obsolete and totally useless.  
In between, he also had to endure other things like uninteresting entries about boarded solar sailers in Argon, or programs in other cities that got placed under arrest, or something called the 'initiative'. The search of the right data proceeded in a more sluggish way than expected, which annoyed Zuse immensely.  
When he was just combing through new codes, his communication system beeped suddenly. He tipped on his right temple, activating the line thereby.  
"Yes?", he asked absently, while perusing the next entry.  
"Castor, some guests already ask for you.", Shaddix' voice came from the ther side. "The last were so annoying, they were a real pain in my ass. Told 'em to ask less and drink more..." Zuse laughed shortly, but the bartender didn't sound as amused as he was. "Yeeeeah, YOU laugh, but they're already giving ME stupid looks!"  
He smirked, shaking his head. "There, there, don't say that too loud, friend. We do not want to scare away our guests, do we? No matter how their looks are."  
"What do ya want me to tell 'em?"  
Suddenly something struck Zuse's eye. He zoomed the data.  
Yes! That was it! That was the newest processes in respect of the Masterkey. Perfect... Without them he would be at a huge disadvantage in the bet with CLU, even if he never admitted it in front of him. Now, though...  
"Castor?"  
Zuse saved the information on the small cube and the luminous screen closed. The glasses disappeared with a quiet hiss from his face and he took the orange glowing cube between his index finger and thumb, marvelling at it with a grin.  
"Tell them I'll be there in a nanocycle..."

* * *

The discovery of the wanted data raised his spirits enormously. Zuse danced exuberantly, had hilarious conversations with his guests, drank much, just enjoyed himself. In these dark times one had to be glad about every trifle, in order to be a little bit happy at all. And this was more than a trifle, which put him in an even more cheerful mood.  
"You're feeling good today, eh?", Shaddix stated with a delighted tone in his voice, when Zuse came to the bar after dancing.  
"Well, I just accomplished a goal, which fed my enthusiasm incredibly, my dear friend!" He sighed, smiling at the bartender in a relaxed way, while leaning against the bar. "This daycycle cannot get better."  
"Castor?", the voice of one of his waitresses came from behind.  
"Yes, dear?"  
"There are some programs that want to speak to you..."  
She pointed in the direction of the big window at the back of the club, where he spotted three conspicuous looking programs. Conspsicous because they neither danced nor drank nor talked. One of them was staring at Zuse, the other two had pulled their hoods down low over their faces.  
Zuse grimaced, turning to Shaddix once again. "But worse, indeed..."  
Then he put on a wide smile again and wound through the club to the three programs. When he reached them, he called out: "Welcome to my club, my lovelies!"  
He positioned himself in front of the one who appeared to be their leader. He had dark skin and an unreadable look on his face. He seemed to be calm, but Zuse presumed those programs here were revolutionaries and such were empirically always emotional, unfortunately. Wether angry or desperate, both annoyed him.  
"The waitress told me that you wish to speak to me. How can I be of assistance?"  
"We need an audience with Zuse.", the man said in a sober tone.  
Zuse looked into his eyes. "Who exactly?"  
The program didn't hesitate like most of the other revolutionaries. "My name is Bartik. I am the leader of a resistance in this level. These are my allies. However, I do not have enough of said allies. Here Zuse comes into play..."  
Zuse smirked. He liked it that this guy got to the point directly. Nevertheless, his supreme rule he made up hundreds of cycles ago still remained valid: Don't let anyone speak to Zuse.  
"You want to recruit him?", he asked in amusement.  
"No, of course not. He's too popular for that. No, we need his help to hire more programs."  
Zuse almost had to laugh out loud. "That means you want me to bring you to Zuse, so that he supports you in engineering a revolt, do I have this right?"  
Bartik took a deep breath and nodded.  
For a moment nobody said a thing, Zuse just stared at Bartik with a slight grin.  
Did these programmes really think it would be that easy to come close to Zuse? How naïve...  
After half an eternity, Zuse said: "Mmm... No."  
Bartik's relaxed expression fell off. "Why not?"  
"Well, where shall I begin... First of all, you appear to be completely unorganised. I mean, which resistance sends its leader to a location where several sentries get entertained too? That is, if I may say so, quite incautious..." Bartik wanted to protest, but Zuse interrupted him, grinning. "And of course there are many other reasons. For instance, that I do not feel like making momentous decisions now. Just like Zuse."  
"This is very important, Castor! We had to go through hell to come here!"  
"Oh, and you have my deppest veneration for that, my dear Bartik, but I still do not care, actually..." Smiling, he walked backwards and continued without breaking eye contact with the man: "For your endeavours you shall be entertained for free, though!" He flicked his fingers joyfully and instantly, a waitress came to him with a tablet, which Zuse took a drink from. Only then exclaiming: "Drink a toast to your courage and your ambitions. May your dreams come true and may... oh, search me... may-"  
"May the party never stop?"  
Zuse froze.  
Slowly, he turned around.  
One of the two hooded ones stepped in front of Bartik now. She looked up, pulling the hood off her head.  
Zuse just stood there, gazing with wide eyes. It couldn't be true. This face...  
She looked straight into his eyes, while beckoning Bartik closer to her. "As discussed: Try to find out as much about the other resistance groups as possible without giving information yourself. Stay discreet. We'll meet at the base then. I..." The commanding reenforcement program smiled at Zuse lightly. "...will attend to our nice host here meanwhile."  
The other hooded figure took the visibly confused Bartik by his arm and the two of them went to the bar.  
Zuse stared at the program, which had spoken and now slowly walked over to him, in shock.  
"So... Does Zuse receive old friends, at least?", Susan asked with a smirk.


	4. 4 Digital Jazz

_**Author's Note: SUUUUSAN GIFFORD IS IN THA HOUSE AGAIN O_O Yeah, she's back and I hope you like this quite long chap of her return. Hope you like the touch of romance in it ;) Thanks again to Pirateweasel ^^ Reviews make my day :)**_

**_And now ENJOY, PROGRAMS, AND PLS REVIIIIEW!_**

**END OF LINE**

* * *

**/Digital Jazz/**

It was impossible.  
It had to be a dream.  
Zuse just stood there, staring at the woman he had believed dead for 798 cycles and who walked over to the little bar in his lounge now. Outside the music of the clubs' DJs was dinning. He didn't even notice that.  
"It's no bother for you if I mix the drinks for us this time, is it, darl?" She spoke without looking at him and took two glasses out. "The bartender in ElecTRONica showed me how to do that. A few hundred cycles ago. Didn't try it for a long time, but I guess I still bring it."  
She looked different. Her hair was white and she had a fringe that ended at her eyes were surrounded by dark make-up. She was scantily dressed, only a broad stripe of black fabric covered her chest and merged at her back with the tight leather trousers and the hood, so that her disc had enough space there. On her skin several luminous lines branched out like fluorescent tattoos. But all that didn't change anything. Her face was the same. Her way of walking was the same. Her voice was the same.  
Thousands of questions bustled about Zuse's head and all of them desperatley required an answer. Everything began to spin around, so Zuse put his cane down to support himself on it.  
"Where do you have those little umbrellas I like so much?", Susan asked casually, rummaging around in the utensils in the shelf next to the bar. When no answer by Zuse came, she looked up, eyeing him with furrowed brow. Then she smirked again and strolled over to him. "Before this ends up as a sentimental reunion, I would rather talk about business first. You know, business before..." She came to a stand close in front of him, looking into his eyes deeply. "... pleasure."  
She took his arm, leading him to one of the couches in the private lounge. She put her Hand onto his chest, lightly pushing to signalise him that he should sit down. And he did.  
Zuse watched her. Repeatedly, he tried to say something, but he couldn't find the strength to.  
Susan... she was here... Unbelievable...  
"So...", she continued in a cheerful tone. "The revolutionaries here are more unorganized than I thought. But it's no surprise actually. Tron City is about 10 times bigger than Argon. It's no wonder that they get, how would Robert Plant call it, dazed and confused." Susan took the prepared drinks and strode around the counter over to Zuse. "As you know already, one of the smaller groups just got erased almost entirely. Fortunately, the survivors were smart enough to send a coded message, an emergency signal, around the Grid and I picked it up. My troops in Argon and those who had settled in the former Bostrum colonies, were like cats on hot bricks anyway, finally wanted a more important, a graver operation than those before, and so a cry for help from Tron City, THE city of cities, came just in time. We had to expand anyway. Change things here too. And changing things in Tron City means to change the Grid, which is the goal of all revolutionaries." She held out the drink to Zuse. Totally dizzy he accepted it. "But these revolutionaries here confine themselves to only a few, unnecessary aspects, don't see what they could accomplish of they were united. And it's very hard to bring programmes together. I realized that in Argon. It was the same thing there at the beginning and it took about a hundred cycles for me to combine them to one big unit. Now they are inseperable, disciplined and only think about the well-being of the majority instead of their own. They would die for the cause. The perfect resistance, isn't it? But it's no use if every town here leads their own resistance. We have to think in greater dimensions. We can only move against CLU when we're all holding together. But like I said, combining the resistance groups here could get incredibly hard for me solely. And here..." She sat down next to Zuse. "... YOU come into play, honey."  
He stared down at the drink she had handed to him. Green. Like the one Shaddix had prepared for them at their first encounter. Did she remember that and had mixed the drink like that for this reason? Or remembered Zuse their mutual memories way better possibly, since he had watched them so many times?  
He still felt paralysed, couldn't move, couldn't speak, could barely breath. Everything seemed so real... but so surreal. Dream or truth... He had no sense of what was real and what not anymore.  
Then he felt her hands on his shoulders. The smooth touch sent shivers down his spine, let a pleasant twinge run through his circuits. Zuse closed his eyes. No, this feeling was real. It wasn't a dream.  
"Zuse has so much influence..." She came closer, whispering next to him with a smile: "I always admired that. Everyone respects him and if they have severe problems, they turn to him immediately. They look up to Zuse. He is a living legend..."  
Zuse lifted his lids abruptly, as he noticed that Susan's left wandered down from his shoulder. He saw how the hand slowly worked its way forward, over his chest, down his side and eventually it stroked over his inner thigh.  
Zuse's heart began to race.  
"... You have so much power, Zuse...", she breathed into his ear.  
He gasped for air and bit his bottom lip. Feeling her, even if it was just a harmless touch on the shoulder, had already been extremely demanding for him emotionally, but now... she put his whole system on the alert.  
"... And you must use this power to help us..." She laughed quietly. "... to help ME."  
She leant forward even more and softly ran her lips over his neck.  
Zuse closed his eyes. He felt his whole body shiver lightly with excitement, almost cracked the glass in his hand. Every bit inside him was vibrating, whereby so much energy emerged that his circuitry colour began to shine brighter than usual and he immediately got hotter.  
Suddenly she let up on him, didn't touch him anymore, neither for her hands nor her lips.  
Breathing heavily, he looked up.  
"But I understand if all of that catches you off-guard.", she said, while standing up. "You don't have to react to my concern at once. We can take care of that..." She took the drink out of his hand and put it down on the side table next to her. "... later on." Susan looked at him with a seductive smile. "That was business." She placed one knee to Zuse's right and the other to his left, so that he sat between her thighs. With widened eyes he looked up.  
"Now the pleasure...", she breathed, let her hands slide down his chest once again, leant forward and began to kiss his neck.  
Zuse was completely dumbfounded and didn't move. When Susan noticed that, she looked at him in confusion. Then a grin spread over her face again and she whispered: "Oh, gotcha..."  
She reached for her back, taking a transparent wafer out of her disc, whereupon her hair became shorter and black, her revealing outfit transformed into a fighting suit and the tattoos vanished. From one second to the other she looked like she used to in the past and looked down on him with a smile he had only been able to adore through the projections of his disc-memories.  
"Better?", she asked, raising a brow with a smirk.  
"Susan...", he brought forth finally.  
She eyed him for a moment and wanted to carry on where she stopped, though, Zuse suddenly grabbed her hips and shoved her to the side abruptly, so that she lay with her back on the couch and he on top of her, holding her wrists tightly.  
"Oh, okay...", she laughed. "YOU wanna take the helm..."  
But there he hissed: "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"  
Shocked, she looked into his pale eyes.  
Zuse breathed rapidly, but not out of excitement anymore, but of fury and despair. "798 cycles, Susan! 798 cycles I thought you were dead! And now you believe I could just forget all of that instantly if I slept with you?! I am sorry to disappoint you, but a sentimental reunion is inevitable! DAMMIT! YOU. WERE. DEAD!"  
Quivering with emotions, he hadn't noticed that his eyes had filled with tears while talking. He quickly stood up and sat down on the couch, further afar from her, laying his face in his hands.  
Susan just stared at him.  
She had expected it to get quite emotional, indeed, but that Zuse would cry... she would've never counted with that. She had never seen him cry before. Neither during the Purge, nor at their parting, when she had to flee to Argon City. That she of all programs caused such feelings inside him, winged her in a way, but it also aggrieved her. He had changed. In front of her did not sit the buoyant Zuse she had known, who had been as cool as possible with everything, but a broken man. And it was her fault.  
As she felt extreme sorrow filling her heart, tears flooded her eyes too.  
Timidly, Susan crawled over to him. "Zuse... Don't you think I didn't bear the brunt of the almost 800 cycles too. There have been moments, when I was so desperate that I just wanted to beg for deresolution. The knowledge that you're fine and save comforted me at least and that we will meet again some time. So I... I can't imagine... nowhere near enough... how you must have felt..."  
He looked up, spotting the tears on her cheeks.  
She spoke up again with a shivery voice: "To be honest, I had no idea how to behave earlier. I mean... damn, 798 cycles! When I first saw you when I entered the club, I just wanted to fall round your neck, hug and squeeze you until my arms fall off. But I chose this option, this seductive-like shit, because I thought you could deal with that best, since you have done that likewise, when we met again after the Purge. I am sorry, I didn't want you to get upset, by no means! I... I am so... so sorry..." Her voice failed her, but Susan took a sharp breath, forcing herself to continue speaking: "And I am really so sorry that I created this entry in the database of honor. It was a protection against CLU! If he thought that I was still alive, he would have let his sentries patrol through Argon all the time and I would have never had the chance to build a real resistance. I didn't want to hurt you so mich, I had to do it, though, I am so sorry..." There she couldn't go in definitely, sobbing uncontrollably.  
"YOU created this...?", Zuse wanted to ask, but before he could bring his line of thoughts to an end, he noticed how unimportant it was for him at this moment. How incredibly unnecessary the tears were that he had provoked. It was totally irrelevant how they got together again, the main point is THAT IT HAPPENED.  
"Susan...", he breathed, lifting her chin, so that they could look at eachother again. 'I am so happy that you are alive..." He smiled at er.  
She smiled back.  
Then they hugged tightly, laughing and crying at the same time. As they moved apart a bit after an eternity, they put their foreheads together with closed eyes.  
"I missed you so much...", Susan whispered.  
Zuse pushed her away lightly to have a look at her, at her lips, at her hair, at her eyes. She had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, even though they were as tearstained as now.  
He stroked over her cheek.  
The tender touch made Susan deliriously happy.  
Noone of the End Of Line Club's guests or staff were aware that two programmes, which hadn't seen eachother for almost eight centuries, finally kissed again. The most beautiful kiss of their lives.

* * *

Zuse lay on the couch, totally relaxed.  
The club had closed already and it was the first time since its opening that it really didn't matter to him that he hadn't been the one who had closed it. Instead, he had carried out his favourite activity with his favourite program. Everything had become meaningless. There had only been him and Susan.  
She had just stood up with still quite shaky legs to get herself something to drink from the bar down in the club, since Zuse didn't have the flavour she was looking for in his lounge.  
He himself just lay there with closed eyes, enjoying the silence.  
He took a deep breath.  
It had been the most eventful night of centuries. And the most beautiful. Zuse could hardly believe his luck. All those cycles he had tried to bring himself to terms, to accept Susan's death and now it came to light that this tiny little spark of hope had been right all the time. He felt so good, probably better than ever before, although the elation that Susan's return had unleashed within him slowly faded already. In lieu, it made way for an ease he could just long for for hundreds of cycles.  
He opened his eyes, spotting the drink Susan had mixed earlier on the side table next to him. The green liquid still glowed a bit. It had lost most of its energy, since they hadn't drunk it immediately, but Zuse decided that he should give it a chance. Slowly, he reached over, taking the glass into his hand and observed it for a moment, before sipping on it. Surprisingly, it tasted good, even though it had lost intensity. Zuse leant back again, emptying the glass in a few gulps. There he heard Susan coming up the stairs.  
"I just tried your drink, dear.", he said, eyeing the glass in his hand with a slight grin.  
"And? How do you like it?", it came back, while she walked past him, hopped onto the little bar and drank out of a bottle there, gleefully.  
"It's great! Well done, sweetheart."  
She laughed. "You sound surprised!"  
"I am."  
"Why? You think, you're the only one who can do that?"  
"No." He smirked. "Shaddix mixes fabulous drinks, too."  
She just raised a brow. "I've learnt a lot in Argon."  
"I noticed that...", he answered, grinning. "Apropos... How did you do that earlier? I have never met a program, wether man or woman, who knows such a move. Did you have to study that or did it take a lot of... practice?"  
"Is the point of that question to find out more than I probably prefer?"  
"Possibly..."  
She eyed him up. "Hm... I believe, we are mature enough to admit that both of us have been... active in the meantime, right?"  
He just replied with a wide smile.  
She laughed and looked around.  
Everything was as it used to be. Even though she had spent the longest time of her life in Argon City, this was her home. The End Of Line Club had always been and will always be her favourite place on the Grid, probably in the entire world too, not least because of its owner.  
Then something struck her eye, reminding her of something.  
"May I use your communication console briefly?"  
"Of course, darling, mi casa es su casa, you know that...", he said with a supine gesture and closed his eyes in relaxation.  
She put the bottle on the counter, skidded down of it and stepped to the console next to the bar. By tipping on it once, she activated it.  
"Password?", Susan asked Zuse.  
"Back to the Future."  
"Huh?" She gave him a confused look.  
"What? Noone, apart from you, would come up with that. Besides, even if I have seen it this one time only, when you showed it to me hundreds of cycles ago, I have strong memories of it. I liked it. Especially... Maaarty."  
"Ooh, rawr...", she laughed and entered the password, whereupon the screen lit up in green and she tipped something in to reach the wanted address. A repeated beep signalised that a connection just got established.  
Then suddenly a voice rang out of the communication console. "_Hallo?_"  
Zuse opened his eyes promptly and sat up. Susan gave him an apologising look. "Hey, Eckert."  
"_Susan! So you made it to the city?_"  
"Sure."  
"_I thought you wanted to contact me as soon as you arrive. I got awfully worried, Sue!_"  
"I'm sorry, I was... occupied. We picked the programs up that sent us this distress signal and helped them. They ought to be at the arranged base now."  
"_Where are you now?"_  
"I...uh..." She looked at Zuse again, but he showed no reaction. "That's... uh... That's unimportant. Main thing is that you send the others in little groups to Tron City."  
"_I will_."  
"Good. I gotta go now. There's something I have to attend to."  
"_Okay. Will you contact me when the first of them land there?_"  
"Yeah."  
"_Allright. Well then, bye for now!_"  
"Bye." She turned the console off, letting her head sink. "I am sorry, I should have told you-"  
"It's okay, Susan.", Zuse interrupted her. "It was just... odd to hear this voice, nothing else..."  
"You're not mad at me?"  
Zuse smiled at her tenderly and beckoned her over. As she approached him, he said: "Of course not. How could I?" She sat down on his lap, putting her arms around his neck and looking at him with a smile. "We have not seen eachother for so long, I am just happy that you are here with me. Negative feelings would be... unproductive."  
He kissed her passionately, before she slipped from his lap on the couch. For a few moments of pleasant silence, they just looked at each other.  
Hesitantly, Susan spoke up again: "At our first encounter, Eckert told me about your relationship..."  
"He did, yes?" Zuse grinned bitterly, looking away. "I am not surprised by that, not in the least..."  
"He also told me about your argument... He is really, really sorry, Zuse.", she murmured.  
"Could we please change the subject?"  
"Sure...", she replied meekly. "Uhm... What do you want to talk about?"  
"Well..." Zuse laughed overly excited. "For instance, that you still keep me on tenterhooks! Tell me what you experienced all those cycles! Go, go, go!"  
She giggled. "I already wondered why the most curious program I know doesn't pump me."  
"Well, I tried to hide it, but I am nearly bursting with curiosity!"  
She told him about the arrival in Argon, how surprised she had been as she met Eckert and got to know about his fighting skills. At first the training with him had been her preoccupation, so that she got even better, but when she realised how the programs in Argon were feeling about CLU's regime, how it suppressed them, she decided to do something. She had been more cautious than she had been in Tron City, hadn't told the members who she really was, whereby it took much more time, but she managed to build the best organised resistance Argon has ever seen. Later, when she had already obtained their confidence, Susan revealed her true identity to her allies.  
"They had great respect for me even before I took over the leadership of the resistance, due to this... well, how is it called... 'Her Fall'?"  
"Yes, 'Her Fall'..."  
Zuse looked to the ground, as Susan continued speaking with a soft voice: "I told all the resistance members about Kyto."  
He looked up, smiling lightly. "You... did?"  
"Yeah. I told them about his bravery, his altruism and calm nature. They admire him for that."  
"He would surely be proud..."  
"I hope so... Anyway, I expanded to Bostrum and it worked out there just as well as in Argon. And... well, I just waited for the best opportunity to return to Tron City." She poked Zuse with her index finger. "Now you, honey."  
"Oh, well, there haven't been as exciting experiences as yours. There were some causes of terror where a few wealthy programmes got derezzed by poorer ones, but that happened a long time ago, about 700 cycles ago. The rest had been... party, more or less."  
They fell silent for a moment.  
Then Zuse quietly said: "I often dreamt of you..."  
"I dreamt of you too." Susan laughed shortly. "Sometimes it was silly stuff!" In thoughts, she looked away. "For example, you once had... a hat. Like, a..." Frowning, she lifted her arms, forming a circle around her head with her hands. "...very...big one... Oh, dreams... They're weird. But it really was a... damn huge hat..." She looked at Zuse with a serious face, seeming to think about something. He narrowed his eyes to slits. After a few moments of silence, Susan added: "Never wear hats. Something bad will happen."  
With furrowed brow they looked eachother into the eyes.  
Suddenly both snorted with laughter. Entirely uncontrollably they laughed so hard that the sound filled the whole club. None of them could remember when they had last laughed this way, from the bottom of their hearts.  
There a short beep rang out, making Zuse hush instantly.  
"What's the matter?", Susan asked, as she saw Zuse's expression.  
"Uhm, it's... Gem. She frequently comes here after the closing of the club. I totally forgot about that..."  
"Gem?"  
"I believe you met her before. This siren I was 'dating'?"  
"Ah, I think, I remember... White bun?"  
Zuse nodded.  
Susan raised an eyebrow. "Why does she visit you that often?"  
"I presume you are mature enough to... well... make sense of it..." By a certain tone in his voice she noticed that he felt quite unpleasant with this situation.  
"I just laughed about hats. Are you really sure of my maturity?"  
Zuse stood up. "Could you please wait here for a nanocycle, while I fob Gem off?" He left her alone, disappearing downstairs. There Gem's seductive voice already resounded.  
Susan pursed her lips. Zuse Änderungen Gem... somehow she didn't like that. Perhaps it was down to the fact that Gem looked extremely attracitve...  
But then she began to smirk. Maybe she should greet Gem too. After all she was one of the sirens, who'd equipped Susan for her first fight in the arena, even the leader of them she guessed. Yes, she deserved a Susan-like greeting.  
So she stood up, peeking down. Zuse and Gem stood next to the bar. Appearently, he just tried to explain to the slightly annoyed looking siren that it was quite inconvenient now. Susan took a run-up, jumped into the club, landed right beside Zuse and boxed the shocked Gem playfully against her arm. "GEEEEM, MA OLD GURL! WHAZZUUUP?!"  
The siren looked at her with her mouth agape, rolled her eyes and then fell to the ground like a wet rag.  
Susan nodded triumphantly.  
Zuse sighed. "Was that really necessary?"  
She licked over her teeth, clicked her tongue and replied: "Yep." He gave her an 'Are you serious?'-look and Susan shrugged. "Hey, noone's immune against a system crash, buddy!"  
"If you think... Would you please help me carry her up to the lounge?"  
Susan puckered her lips, folding her arms. "Nope."  
Zuse smirked, squatted down to Gem and laboriously lifted her up. "Your behaviour is outrageous, young lady."  
"Young lady... Pff! In the User-world I'd be like... 53 years old! I'd be terrible looking."  
While dragging Gem up the stairs, he said: "I don't think you could ever be ugly, pretty miss. Besides, I read about the ageing process of Users and it does not sound bad at all."  
He just reached the middle step, as Susan answered: "But... but... Old people look like raisins!"  
Zuse exploded with laughter, dropping Gem unintendedly, who now slid down the stairs and landed on the ground with a bang. He gasped for air, clapping his hand to the mouth. "Holy sh..."  
Susan just stood there with her mouth agape, pointing at Zuse stiff like a statue.  
When he noticed that, he called: "What?!"  
"You dropped her!"  
"Because of YOU!"  
"No, no, no! Don't pin that on others, honey!"  
Zuse shook his head, laughing. "You see, only now do I have the feeling that Susan Gifford is back!"

* * *

Susan had helped Zuse with Gem, but she had to go before her reboot, because of her appointment with the resistance members. It hadn't been a great farewell, just a long kiss, since she had promised faithfully to come back after a recovering sleeping cycle.  
Now she was walking through the streets of Tron City, with her disguise, the white hair and the revealing outfit, donned. Even 798 cycles couldn't harm her memory. Determined, she strolled down the alleys, knew exactly where to go to, although she hadn't been here for such a long time. It felt good to have a walk through her home city on the Grid, eyeing the buildings she had climbed up sometimes, seeing the wide streets with their hexagonal paving she had driven over with her lightcycle often. Yes, this was her home and she didn't want to leave it for a long, long time.  
Susan took a deep breath, smiling lightly.  
Zuse. It'd been so incredibly good to see him again. In her exile she had to think of ihm so many time, had watched their moments through her disc-memory, which had made her happier but also aroused her longing for him everytime anew. Even after such a long time, he was still her best friend, her closest confidant. Therefore, she felt really sorry for him now that she had to lie concerning the meantime in Argon. For Eckert's sake she had kept the time a secret, when also he had considered her dead but hadn't had the heart to tell Zuse about it. And Susan was glad he hadn't. After all, she hadn't only promised Eckert to not say a word about it to anyone. About what happened in the Outlands.

_Slowly, Susan lifted her lids, but closed them immediatly after. It was far too bright in here. But what was 'here'?  
She put her right hand over her eyes, protecting them from the torrent of white until they got used to it, while sitting up. She noticed that she was lying on a soft surface. Finally, she managed to open her eyes completely and looked around, frowning.  
It was an entirely white room with pretty, noble furniture. On her left was a dresser with a big mirror above, on her right a window, behind which luminous water gurgled in a small pool. The bed she was lying on was also white, only the rims consisted of silver shining flourishes.  
Where the hell was she?  
Was that heaven? Susan didn't believe in such actually, but this here just occured so absurd to her. Besides, she remembered that she collapsed in the Outlands. Did she also die there?  
Slowly, she slid to the edge of the bed, breathing heavily.  
2 reboots within 3 days weren't to be recommended for any program. Susan felt really lousy. It reminded her of those mornings after nights she had spent in collage, drinking, smoking and just having fun with her friends. Her head was spinning and she had to cling to the white blanket beneath her.  
Suddenly a short rumble sounded.  
Alarmed, Susan looked to the door opposite the bed. Until now the question if she was allone hadn't even crossed her mind, but now...  
With her gaze fixed on the door, she stood up, totteringly approaching it. There she also noticed a little vial with a label on the dresser next to the bed. Frowning, she took it into her hand and read: "Drink me'  
"Do I look like fucking Alice, or what?", she murmured and almost had to laugh at the thought: 'Susan in Grid-Land'  
She observed the liquid inside the vial and realised that she had seen something like that just a few millicycles ago. "Pure energy..."  
'One should always drink it after a reboot.', Zuse's words resounded hin her head. So she opened the little phial and emptied it in one gulp, not being able to suppress a cough.  
Susan looked up.  
The dizziness had faded, but gave way now to great sceptisism.  
Warily, she took her disc from her back as she stepped towards the door. Very slowly she pushed it open and peeked out. A long dark corridor with a few doors on its left side opened in front of her. She perceived quiet music, but by its minor volume she wasn't able to judge the direction it came from.  
With her disc in her hand she sneaked down the corridor, trying to locate where the rumble had come from.  
There. Again quiet cracking. It had come from a door further afar.  
Susan stopped in front of one of them and squeezed her ear against it. Nothing. She sneaked to the next. Again nothing.  
With each step the music became a bit louder. Somehow it seemed familar to her.  
As she reached the last door in the corridor, a cracking sound resonated directly behind it.  
Susan went into fighting position, putting her free hand on the handle. The pounding of her own heart was the loudest noise around her.  
Mentally, she counted: 'One... Two... Three!'  
She pushed the door open and... froze.  
Kevin Flynn, who was sitting on the ground barefooted next to a knocked down lightcycle, looked at her in confusion. After half an eternity he said: "Knocking is luxury, huh?"  
There fell a deep silence again. The loud music was the only thing that was to hear: _"Big in Japaaan, alright, pay then I'll sleep by your side..."_  
Susan let her tensed arms sink. The disc slipped out of her weak hand and dropped to the ground, clattering.  
Tears ran over Susan's cheeks and she fell down on her knees.  
Only her loud sobbing interrupted Flynn's thoughts. He quickly stood up, turned the volume of the music down and squatted down to his bitterly crying friend, putting his hand on her back. "Hey, hey, everything's alright, girl..."  
She looked up and flung her arms around his neck in an instant. "KEVIN!", blubbered out.  
He smiled, giving her a squeeze. "I'm here, Susie Q, everything's fine..."  
Her heart was racing, as she was close to hyperventilating.  
Kevin Flynn, the creator and one of her best of all time, hugged her!  
She looked at him, taking his face into her hands. Between her sobbing she brought forth: "You're alive! And you're living in the Outlands! And you saved me! And-and-and... SHIT, IS THAT ALPHAVILLE?"  
He laughed. "Hell YES to all, man!"  
She leant her cheek against his shoulder again. They poised like this a long time. Then Susan took a deep breath to Calw down.  
"You alright?", Flynn asked.  
"Yeah...", she murmured, wiping the tears off. "I just... can't believe it... How long has it been?"  
"About 150 cycles, I guess."  
She laughed. "And you still look like you used to!"  
"Well, actually only 3 years have passed, kiddo..."  
"Not for me!"  
He helped her up and guided her into a big room with a fireplace and a dining table and much more. One side was just a huge hole, wherefrom one could even detect the highest tower of Tron City in the distance. The End Of Line Club, which was on top of it, shined like a star.  
Flynn and Susan sat down on an old-fashioned but stylish looking white couch. "Now, tell me what happened in the meantime.", he said with a happy smile. "I caught you fought in the arena."  
"Where die you hear that from? Haven't you been here all the time?"  
He laughed. "Hey, I'm the creator! I have my possibilities. I let Quorra go to Argon spmetimes. After all, I gotta stay up-to-date."  
Susan's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"  
He gave her a confused look, sighed then and closed his eyes. "Oh, yeah, right... I guess, I should begin..."  
So he told her how CLU had stopped him and Tron, who had been on their way to the portal, and sicced his sentries on them. Tron had sacrificied himself, so that he could escape. After that he had tried to cut his way through to the central office to reprogram all sentries on the Grid, but it'd been unapproachable. At the futile attempt to help some ISOs out of the city, his leg got badly injured and he had been forced to flee to the Outlands, wherefrom he had had to witness the demise of the ISOs. The miracle he had worked for so long and taken into his heart... Gone. Though, as he had been searching for a shelter in the Outlands, he had found Quorra, whom he had built the Safe House with.  
"She's been wiped out too, but not half as much as you were. It was pure luck that I found you. Just wanted to try out if my old lightcycle still works and there I came across you. Lying on the ground, half-dead, your circuitry lights barely on... Why the heck have you been here, Sue?"  
She told him her own story, ending with: "I was so distressed... I desperately wanted to find you. And I did..."  
They smiled at eachother.  
Südens a familiar voice behind Susan rang out. "Hey, is she awake already?"  
Susan turned around lightning-fast.  
Quorra just strolled into the room and when she spotted her, she stopped abruptly.  
"SUSAN!"  
"QUORRA!"  
The two of the literally precipitated into a tight embracement. Susan squeezed Quorra as hard as she could, until she pushed her away lightly. "Oh man..." She grinned from ear to ear. "I can't believe you're alive! That an ISO is alive! And then of all ISOs it's YOU!"  
Flynn laughed. "It hasn't been that loud here for a long time! Typically females..."  
Susan beckoned him over. "Come here, you macho-creator, I want a fucking GROUP HUG!"  
He consorted with them. "It's great to have you back, Sue..."_

"Boss!"  
Susan looked up, spotting a program from her resistance that had come to Zuse with her and Bartik, standing at a small opening in a wall of a building.  
She smiled, approaching him. "Did you enjoy yourselves in the EOLC?"  
"A bit. It was a pleasant change. And you?"  
She grinned and went past him into the entrance of the resistance base.  
Inside, she proudly looked down at the hall, which her own allies had programmed and now eagerly worked out in in hundreds.  
"Have you been able to persuade Zuse to help us?"  
She smiled lightly. "I'm not sure yet. But one thing is for certain..." She stepped down the stairs and the programs lined up in rank and files. Susan gave them a determined look. "... CLU should brace himself for a storm..."


	5. 5 Backup

**/Backup/**

"That I didn't recognize you straight away..."  
Bartik sat next to Susan who was just checking the training weapons.  
After she had come back from the EOLC, she had asked Bartik and the others if they had learned more about the resistance organisations in Tron City, though none of them had useful information. Especially Bartik who had become entirely useless, since he had just stared at her all the time instead of saying anything, which had made her feel quite uncomfortable after a while.  
He had come to her after the 'team meeting', asked her quietly: "_You are... you are Susan, right?_"  
She had laughed. "_Well, it's been a long time since we've worked together, huh_?"  
He had been thrilled to bits and it'd taken much time for Susan to put him off, so that she could finally have her sleeping cycle in her quarter, which was located above the training hall like the ones of all others here. Though, right in the morning, when she thought that everyone was still sound asleep and that she would have the chance to prepare everything for the training in peace and quiet, before she would visit Zuse again, Bartik had surprised her in the hall.  
"Yeah, that's no problem... But please don't blare it out. My people know who I am of course, but it'd be better if as few programs here as possible were privy to it for now. Okay?"  
"Sure!", Bartik replied cheerfully.  
She finished checking and just wanted to leave, as he held her back. "Where are you going?"  
"No worries, I'll be back soon."  
"That was no answer to my question..."  
"It's the only thing you have to know."  
He eyed her shortly. "Is it really safe if you go out alone?"  
She smiled at him. "The times when sentries could stop me are long gone."  
"And if someone recognizes you?"  
"Noone will recognize me." She looked away. "Not yet..."

* * *

As the elevator doors opened, she got welcomed by Zuse instantly. He took her by the hand, turning her around elegantly, and then squeezed such a big smooch on her cheek that she had to arch her back at it.  
"Helloooo, dearest!", he warbled cheerfully.  
"Man, you're totally hyped!", she laughed. "Are you okay?"  
He spoke so quickly that she had trouble understanding him. "I feel wonderful! I couldn't sleep tonight, indeed, instead I have had about a thousand drinks!"  
"Oookaaay..."  
"Come, as long as noone is here we can sit at the bar."  
He put his hand on her back and strolled forwards with her. She sat down on a stool, Zuse standing right next to her.  
He sighed. "And how are you today, precious?"  
She smiled at him. "Great. But your good mood raises my spirits even more, my friend!"  
He took her Hand in his again, kissing it. "Oh, you know, I could only think about you all night long and just waited for you to come back, totally impatiently..."  
Susan giggled. She found it incredibly amusing how hyperactive Zuse was right now and enjoyed his mirth. "Aw, what a nice way of putting it. But what ever happened to Gem?"  
He looked into her eyes, grinning. Susan realised how attractive she still found his eyes. 800 cycles hadn't changed anything about it.  
"She was utterly confused. I explained the situation to her and brought her home, where she rests now."  
"Hm..." Susan looked to the ground in thoughts, while Zuse continued kissing her hand with closed eyes. "Only later it occured to me that it wasn't a good idea to draw her into the whole thing..."  
He shook his head lightly. "Don't worry, Gem is trustworthy. She will not tell anyone about your return."  
Now he worked his way up, kissing her whole arm, her neck and finally her cheek again, while having his arm wrapped around her waist. Susan squeaked.  
"You like that?", Zuse whispered.  
"A bit..."  
He laughed quietly. "A bit is not enough for Zuse..."  
He positioned himself in front of her, between her thighs, and kissed her passionately, before attending to her neck again.  
Susan smiled widely. Then something crossed her mind. As she kept her eyes closed and stroked over the back of Zuse's head, she said: "Did you think about my offer yesterday?"  
"Which one? That you are on top is time?", he breathed with a grin.  
She laughed. "Noooo. That you help us unite the resistances."  
"Oh, that... hm... Yes, I pondered over it, indeed..."  
"And?", she whispered joyfully.  
He looked at her shortly, hesitatingly said: "Um... No." and wanted to continue then, though Susan pushed him away from her.  
She frowned. "What?"  
He sighed. "I... I will not help you..."  
"Why not? Back then I understood it, since so many programmes were still loyal to CLU. But now... I mean, at least a third of the Grid's population is against him! So why don't you help us?"  
Zuse looked away, biting his bottom lip, before turning to Susan again with a pleading expression on his face. "Can't we... discuss that later, darling? The day started off so nicely..."  
He put his hands on her hips again, but she just stripped them off angrily, slipping from the stool and coming to a stand in front of him with folded arms. "No, we cannot! I don't have all day. In case forgot: I'm leading a resistance against the man who killed the ISOs and that requires a lot of work. So now, answer the question: Why the hell don't you want to help us?"  
Zuse opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again immediately. What should he say? 'Because I don't trust revolutionaries and hate the Users'? Probably a very bad idea... "I... well... It is kind of... inconvenient..."  
"Inconvenient?" She raised an eyebrow. Then after a pause she laughed in a bitter way. "Ah, gotcha! You're too much of a coward, right?"  
"No, I'm..." He sighed and hushed, shaking his head.  
A few moments Susan was just glaring at him. Then she snorted, walking towards the elevator.  
"Susan, wait!" He ran after her and held onto her arm. "Please, stay!"  
"Why? So that you can have your fun with me without offering any help to me in return? No, thanks. That's a little too silly for me..."  
"No, I do want to help, but..."  
She gave him a piercing look. "But what?"  
Zuse sighed. "It's very hard for me... Please, stay... just a microcycle..."  
Susan took a deep breath and walked over to the bar again. "Okay... but not for long..."  
When she came to a stand, Zuse gathered all his courage and spoke up again: "I, myself, cannot help you, because of... many reasons. BUT I have an idea, which could be very useful for your intentions."  
"Which would be?"  
Zuse hestiated. On the one hand, what he wanted to say would delight her, since it brought her closer to her goal, uniting all resistance groups in Tron City, but on the other hand... it surely would make Susan extremely mad at him. But he had to do something, otherwise she wouldn't forgive him that he didn't help. Although... she might wouldn't forgive him that now too... "I know a programme who could be of service to you. He works for me as contact man and informant."  
"A spy then.", Susan said unimpressed.  
"Something like that... Anyway, he knows many programmes from the 'underground' and therefore also members from various, if not all, resistance groups in Tron City. And he's popular. Really popular. My suggestion would be that he gets representatives of all of these organisations to assamble at a secret location, where YOU can address them all at the same time. Well, how about that?"  
She ran her hand through her hair in thoughts. "Sounds good... What's the guy's name and where can I find him?"  
"I can arrange a meeting. In a bar called 'Ultra File'. He's often there anyway."  
"And his name?"  
Zuse looked away. He began to pace up and down. "His name is... um... is..."  
"Zuse...", Susan sighed in annoyment.  
He stopped, taking a deep breath. "His name is... Kyto."  
She furrowed her brow. "Huh?"  
He smiled nervously. "Well... actually it's Kay for everyone but me..."  
"Did... you say... Kyto?"  
He gave her an ashamed look, could barely breathe. "Yes."  
Silence.  
Susan let her furious posture fall, starring at Zuse speechlessly. Then the silence became too uncomfortable for Zuse, so he spoke up again with a shivery voice: "You want a drink, dear?"  
"Why is this guy's name Kyto?", she asked thunderstruck.  
He closed his eyes and sighed. "Because... he is a backup of your old friend Kyto. Therefore his full name would probably be something like Kyto 2.0..."  
Susan's breathing got faster and she glared at Zuse. As she was talking through gritted teeth, one could discern how much she was trying to suppress her anger. "Didn't you tell me back then after my reboot that he didn't have a backup? 'There is nothing we can do'. Weren't that your words? Was that a lie?"  
With concern he looked to the ground. "No... well, yes, but..."  
Her index finger of her right pointed pointed at him, making him hush, whereas the left was clenched to a fist, pressed hard against the side of her body. Susan would love nothing better than yell at Zuse now, but she had to keep Hersfeld under control, had to concentrate for the resistance' sake and not waste time. "ou arrange a meeting in this 'Ultra File'-bar, got it? I'll be there in two millicycles."  
She turned around and marched towards the elevator.  
"Susan!", Zuse called, following her. "Maybe I should tell you how he looks like, so that you can recognise him."  
She laughed bitterly. "I know how Kyto looked like... or looks... or... ah, whatever! Dammit, I'll manage!"  
"Yes, but he is... different than the one you knew. He does not have memories of former times. I do not want you to be shocked..."  
He kept making her more and more angry. Why couldn't Kyto remember anything? Backups always synchronize the memories of their predecessor upon their activation. But that didn't matter at this moment, she had to focus on the bare essentials. "I DO remember my friend. Don't worry, I will recognize him. 'Ultra File'. In two millicycles."  
With these words she pushed the button to go down and the elevator doors closed.  
Zuse exhaled, closing his eyes. He hoped strongly that Susan wouldn't hate him after she got to know the new Kyto.

* * *

"'Ultra File'... It kinda sounds..."  
"... ridiculous?"  
Bartik giggled. "Yeah."  
Susan just kept a straight face, observing the red glowing signboard with folded arms.  
Right after she had arrived at their base, she had told them all about the meeting Zuse was willing to arrange. Everyone had been atwitter, since they finally had a plan that could actually work. Though, Susan didn't join the excitement, just strode into her quarter, trying to calm down. Without success.  
She didn't know what to think about it. Was Kyto really alive? And what did Zuse mean? Why should she be shocked if she finally was able to enfold one of her best friends in her arms again? Even if this backup was different, indeed, and couldn't remember her, he was still her friend... But Zuse... He had known about Kyto having a backup and had kept it from her, had made her believe that he was dead. She just hoped that her anger would fade when she was united with Kyto again.  
Susan had tried to persuade the resistance members to let her go alone to this bar, but they had too good arguments, so that she took Bartik with her, in case she accidently ran into difficulties. Together they had gone to the first lower level, where they had needed almost 2 hours to find this bar.  
Now they were standing in front of the entrance to the 'Ultra File' and looked at the big red letters that flaunted above it.  
"How about going in?", Bartik asked eventually.  
Susan took a deep breath. As she spoke, she didn't avert her gaze from the sign: "I go alone. You wait here and watch for sentries."  
"What? I thought we agreed that-"  
"Bartik, this is private. I really gotta do this on my own, you understand?"  
He gave her a pondering look, before answering: "Okay... But what if something happens in there?"  
"If I'm not back in a quarter-millicycle, go inside and check the situation."  
"All right."  
Susan closed her eyes.  
She was incredibly nervous. What was to be expected in there? Would it be a great disappointment or another sentimental reunion?  
Susan let out a deep sigh and stepped to the entrance.  
When she opened the heavy door, she grimaced. The music here didn't conform to her taste at all. It was no brisk tune, no interesting rhythm, just a hard beat without soul and incoherent sounds. She felt uneasy with the programs here too. Much naked skin and dirty faces. They just looked... deprived.  
As Susan realised how stupid this thought was, considering that she had also looked like this somtimes in the past, since she had lived on the streets like some of these programs here did too surely, she shook her head lightly. She had to concentrate on other things now.  
It probably wouldn't be too difficult to find Kyto here. Instead of standing in front of a big dancing crowd like in ElecTRONica, most of the programs here just talked, laughed loudly and just had fun in their own socitey, in some corners even in obscene ways.  
'Okay, let's find Kyto...'

* * *

Exhausted, Susan leant against the bar at the right side of the room.  
When she hadn't been able to find Kyto anywhere here, she had become even more stressed. She had tried to ask some programs about someone named 'Kay', but after each of them just answered: "You have to experience Kay firsthand!" - obviously it hadn't been a lie when Zuse had said that he was very popular, which was a difference to the old Kyto, who rather bothered with his own little circle of friends, instead of knowing hundreds of programs - she had given up and trudged to the bar.  
She got a headache because of the boring hard music and that Kyto still wasn't here and noone could tell her anything of use about him, stretched her patience enormously.  
There one of two female bartenders, who was bald and had light blue circuitry colour, greeted her with high-pitched but nice sounding voice: "Welcome to the 'Ultra File'! What's it to be?"  
"Something strong, please..."  
While mixing the drink, the woman looked at Susan with a smile. "Are you having a strenous night?"  
Susan sighed wearily. "You could say that... Do you know a program called Kay?"  
"Sure! He often entertains us all night long...", the girl said dreamily.  
Keen-eared, Susan straightened herself. "Really? He entertains you? How?"  
The bartender sighed deep in thought. "You know, you have to experience Kay-"  
"-firsthand, I got it...", she ended her sentence in an annoyed tone.  
The program put the drink on the counter and Susan drank it in one swallow. The energised liquid was burning in her throat, didn't raise her spirits at all though.  
Burried in thoughts she let the tip of her finger wander over the rim of her glass.  
Suddenly it got darker in the room and a few programs began to scream in excitement. The music changed, became a quite stimulating beat with electrifying melody.  
Susan lifted her head in confusion. Then she felt a hand on her arm and looked right into the joyful face of the bartender. "NOW you can experience Kay firsthand!", she shouted over the loud cheering, giving a nod to the entrance of the Ultra File.  
Susan turned around and stiffened.  
With a complacent expression he strutted into the room. His hair was black and stuck out from his head in all directions. He wore silver glasses and an extremely tight black suit with dazzlingly green circuitry colour, which bared almost all movements of his muscles and more. If it hadn't been for the familiar features, Susan never would have recognised Kyto.  
In an elegant motion, he threw the glasses away and laughed: "Let me entertain you, my friends!", which made even more of the programs in the room squeak loudly.  
There the first of his admirers already came over to him, making mooneyes at him. He grinned at them, let them grope him, as he stretched out his hands. While running their hands over him, they let their identity cards slip over his arms, where they lit up at each touch, as payment for offering his company and body. Then he apparently lost interest in them, pushed them away from him and began to dance. He attended to his fans now, rubbing himself against each of them in a filthy way. Something like that wouldn't be possible in the End Of Line Club. There one could make out, indeed, but never to such an extent, since everyone there minded class and didn't provoke an orgy like the programs did here.  
Susan viewed the spectacle with her mouth agape and widened eyes.  
Zuse had been right. She WAS shocked. Really.  
THIS was supposed to be Kyto? Her sheepish friend whom she had never seen dancing with any other than herself? Impossible. This... animal couldn't be Kyto.  
She couldn't move, could barely breathe, just watch.  
Kyto drove more and more programs over the edge in the meantime and he visibly enjoyed it. Suddenly he looked into her direction.  
His dark framed eyes fixated her, he let up on his current dancing partner and walked straight up to her.  
Susan didn't know how to behave now.  
When he came to a stand in front of her, she didn't say anything, just endured his hungry looks.  
He took her hand, quickly said: "Come, let's dance!" and dragged her into the now moving crowd.  
Susan was totally dumbfounded.  
Kyto turned her around her own axis once and then grabbed her hips from behind, moving his pelvis rhythmically in circles.  
After holding her breath all the time, she finally exhaled slowly, whimpering into herself. What should she do? She couldn't dance like this with Kyto! But if she pushed him away, the others here would probably freak out. Besides, this wasn't Kyto really... and it also appealed to her body what he did... But it was Kyto!  
'What the hell am I doing?!'  
The physical contact got more intense and Susan fought out an increasingly severe battle within herself. One side of her found it disgusting what she was doing right now, the other wanted it.  
Then Kyto breathed into her ear: "Castor has such a good taste, babe..."  
So he knew who she was. He knew that she was the one he had to meet up with to discuss business matters. And still he was dancing up on her in this salacious way rather than complying with his instructions.  
Susan squeezed her lids together. The situation was so absurd...  
All of a sudden the familiar voice sounded next to them: "Talk of the devil, and he is bound to appear, my dear fellow."  
She opened her eyes quickly, catching sight of Zuse who was looking at Kyto with a raised eyebrow.  
"Castor!", he laughed. "You, here?"  
Zuse tipped with his finger tips against his cane in annoyment. "I told you to meet a woman here who has to talk to you about something of importance. I did not express in any way that I want you to beget her."  
Kyto eyed Zuse with hungry eyes, before he said in a seductive tone: "I have nothing against you attending us, sunshine..."  
There Zuse's stern expression turned into an amused smirk. "Tempting offer, my friend... really tempting..."  
"Hey, I'm still here! Stop negotiating about my sex now!", Susan shouted angrily and struck Kyto's hands off of her hips.  
She had enough. She was tired of this game. Zuse had changed Kyto. He had changed him to such an extent that he wasn't her friend anymore and that made her extremely furious.  
Though none of both minded her. Not at all.  
Kyto grinned at Zuse. "That your highness would ever come down to us scum..."  
"Hello?", Susan said irritated. Was the music too loud that they couldn't hear her, which was highly improbable actually, or why didn't anyone pay attention to her?  
"Well, I figured you would not take things too seriously, wherefore I rather wanted to watch you getting the work done conscientiously... Bad luck for me, isn't it, pretty miss?"  
"HELLO!?"  
"Aw, are you going to give me a spanking now?", Kyto asked with faked pouting and then licked over his lips.  
That was the ultimate limit for her.  
Susan grabbed Zuse's glass cane, aimed it at the stereo equipment in the corner of the room and shot once. The dancing programs screamed out and fixed their eyes on her, just like Kyto and Zuse.  
"YOU and YOU," She pointed at the two of them. "you come with me now! GET OUT NOW!", she yelled into the silence in the room, pressed the cane into Zuse's hand again and marched to the exit, ignoring the shocked faces around her. Brutally, she pushed the door open, tromping towards Bartik who was leaning against a street light, observing everything with his attentive gaze.  
When she came to a stand in front of him, she hissed: "Why didn't you inform me immediately that Castor is here?!"  
Taken by surprise, he stammered: "W-what? Castor is-is here? In a lower level?"  
"In the bar! And YOU should have noticed that!"  
"I came through the back entrance.", she heard Zuse's voice behind her.  
She turned around quickly, pointing at him threateningly. "YOU!"  
Zuse backed away a bit. "Me?"  
"YOU MADE KYTO A WHORE!", she screeched.  
"Hey!" Kyto who had come out of the Ultra File together with Zuse looked at her indignantly. "You can see that I'm standing next to you, right?" He turned to Zuse, speaking more quietly: "Where the hell did you get HER? She doesn't have her bits together..."  
"You. Zip it. I'll come to you soon enough." Then she glared at Zuse again. "Kyto was a dignified, kind program! Through you he became a toy for all greedy swines on the Grid! Although, he's actually not the same, but still! YOU DRAG HIS NAME THROUGH THE MIRE!"  
"Stop that bullshit, I can hear every word you say!" Kyto looked down at her furiously, but got cowed by her dark expression instantly.  
"If you don't keep your mouth shut at once, I'll give you a kick in the ass that you fly right to the Sea of Simulation, is that understood?!"  
"Susan, please, calm down...", Zuse said with a pleading look.  
"SUSAN?" Kyto was visibly thunderstruck.  
Though, Zuse didn't pay any attention to him, just kept talking. "I thought you would be happy, if-"  
"HAPPY?!" She planted herself in front of him. "You, damn bastard, lied to me! You looked into my eyes 798 cycles ago and said: 'He did not have a backup'! All those years I blamed myself for his death and for not being smart enough to have programmed a backup for him, although I was totally aware that something could happen to him, and something DID happen! And I couldn't do anything about it! He was one of my best friends, Castor! ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS! And YOU concealed from me that there was a copy of him!" She turned to Kyto now. "Oh, and YOU are really pathetic in comparison to the original. The other Kyto was honorable and always tried to change the world, make it a better place. And you, Kaaaay, hang around in such shabby bars, fuck random programs in passing, without even thinking about the well-being of the Grid. The REAL Kyto would never have done that! NEVER! He just was a helpful guy, a damn good friend..." Panting, she looked into Zuse's eyes. "... Obviously there are none of such left these days..."  
Then she turned around and went the way back she and Bartik, who followed her now, had come earlier.  
Zuse gazed after her with a sorrowful look.  
The day had started off so nicely...

* * *

**_Author's Note: KYYYYTOOO!_**


	6. 6 On the Same Team (pt1)

_**Author's Note: I'm sorry it took that long. There's a lot of work to do when you're a director X( Anyway, here's the new chap! I divided it into two parts, since I know it can get boring when reading a chap that's more than 5000 words XD **_

**_Now, ENJOY, PROGRAMS, AAAAAAND PLEEEEASE REVIEW! (I saw I have a few more followers, it'd be nice if you could just give me a short review :) )_**

**END OF LINE**

* * *

**/On the Same Team (pt 1)/**

Susan lay with her face in the pillow on her bed.  
She didn't want to feel anymore, didn't want to think. She just wanted to lie there and sleep. Though, she couldn't. She was incredibly tired, indeed, but inside she was far too agitated to come to rest.  
Immediately after the quarrel she and Bartik had returned to the base. On their way he didn't dare to address her once, naturally. As they had arrived, the others already had jumped towards them full of delight and wanted to know how it went and if the assembly of the resistances would take place. Susan had answered simply and in a harsh tone: "No." and disappeared in her quarter instantly. Nothing, she wanted to hear nothing. Neither reproaches, since she had messed up their shot at a fusion of the revolutionaries in Tron City, nor consolation.  
Very slowly Susan lifted her head, looking at the imprint on her pillow.  
It was soaking wet, since she had cried a lot, but already had laid here for an hour without any outbursts of emotions. She had cried out of anger which especially arose from the wasted time in Argon, in which she had felt so lonely, although she wouldn't have had to do that, as she experienced now, since Kyto was alive. On the other hand... like he was now, she didn't want to be concerned with him anyway. That was an other program, which looked like him, nothing else.  
Susan sighed, twisted the pillow around and just wanted to let her head fall onto it again, when suddenly a quiet hammering rang out. But not on her door. It sounded like it was coming from downstairs, from the entrance of their base. Though who could it be? All members of her resistance had already arrived and accommodated in their quarters.  
Quickly, she got up and walked down to the training hall, where the entrance was situated. Already as she was walking down the staircases, she perceived testy voices.  
"What's happening here?", she asked all tensed up, when she saw one of her man standing at the entrance. Apparently he just tried to push their visitor out.  
"Man, now let me in! I have to talk to Susan, you idiot!", Kyto's voice sounded and Susan's heart skipped a beat.  
She came to a stand next to the program, dragged Kyto in and closed the door.  
"Don't let anyone stand at the entrance a long time, otherwise someone will take notice of our fulcrum, got it?!", she hissed at the program.  
He nodded in shock and absented himself.  
"What do you want and how did you find this base?", she asked Kyto as cold as her expression was.  
"I wouldn't be Castor's top-informant, if I wouldn't be able to follow a few programs without being seen." Then the tone in his voice changed and his expression looked worried. "I urgently need to talk to you..."  
She glared at him. "Why should I want to talk to YOU, Kay?"  
"Please..."  
Susan maintained the eyecontact for a short moment yet, but quickly looked away then. His face looked like the real Kyto's now, not as vain and smug as earlier, but honest. Just like in the old days...  
"Come with me...", she murmured angrily.  
He followed her into a dark room, where a ladder went up to the top of the building which Susan climbed up now.  
As she arrived at the roof, she took a deep breath of fresh air.  
Kay's visit irritated her and she actually didn't feel like talking to him at all, but it seemed to be really urgent.  
Curiously, Kyto leant over the hand rail at the edge of the building, admiring the view from up here. Even though it wasn't very high, one could still see the Outlands, since it was located so close to the outskirts.  
"Beautiful. If you're spending as much time in the lower levels as I do, you really come to appreciate the air up here...", he said, smiling lightly.  
"Skip the smalltalk and get to the point.", Susan replied annoyed.  
"Sure..." He sighed, running his hands through the black hair, as Susan eyed him with folded arms. He actually looked like earlier, the tight suit, the make-up, but his posture was different, more closed, even a bit shy, his eyes were attentive instead of lustful, almost like...yes, like Kyto... the real Kyto.  
"I... You know... Castor only told me that I should meet a woman that wants to negotiate with me. Neither he told me what it was about, nor..." He swallowed and looked at her. "... WHOM I should meet." He exhaled, closing his eyes and folding his hands behind his head, whilst laughing: "Man, you really ARE Susan Gifford, I can't believe it! I mean... Your whole life you hear about these stories about a program and its heroic deeds and then you face it, although everyone thought it was dead. It's just... amazing!" He looked into her eyes, smiling. "You're an idol, you know that?" As he saw the scepticism in her expression, his smile fell and he let his arms sink. "I... I am sorry for what I said and did... If I knew that it was you, I certainly would have never treated you like this, like the others, touching you and so on..." Kyto sat down, letting his legs dangle from the edge of the roof, holding onto the hand rail.  
He was not the guy from earlier. He was calm, friendly, likeable. That was why Susan now dared to take a few steps towards him and leant against the hand rail next to him. There was no anger in her voice anymore. "Did you come here to tell me THAT?"  
He watched a solar sailer, flying in the distance, as he spoke: "No, not because of that reason." He looked up to her. "I came because of Castor. He is totally upset. What you said, makes him feel so guilty..."  
"He should.", she answered in annoyment.  
At that Kyto stood up, giving her a stern look. "You have no idea why he did it, why he kept it a secret that Kyto, the old Kyto, had had a backup. You didn't even want to listen to him as he wanted to explain, you just condemned him without knowing the truth. I came here to tell you about it."  
"So Castor sent you?"  
He shook his head. "No, he doesn't know that I am here and I don't want him to." He gazed into the distance again and Susan listened, leaning over the hand rail. "Castor had a good reason for not telling you. When he got to know about this backup, he couldn't be sure if it would work. It was extremely damaged, didn't activate itself after the dresolution of the original program. Chances of a successful manual activation, that... I could live... were about 15%..." Kyto looked at Susan again. "Castor wanted to protect you. How, do you think, would you have felt if he told you about the backup and then it wouldn't work? You would have been devastated, right? He didn't want to raise false hopes, wanted to see what he could do first and when he finally managed to activate me, you were already gone, somewhere in Argon. You have been through a lot and he wanted to ease the burden on you. Castor did it for your own good... Besides, of all programs YOU should be the last to impute deception to him."  
She squinnied. "What do you mean with THAT?"  
He sighed. "Well, I mean... everyone thought you were dead, including Castor, and still... you are standing next to me now."  
She rolled her eyes. "That's something entirely different! Castor made me believe for almost 800 cycles that one of my best friends was dead!"  
"And YOU made HIM believe for almost 800 cycles that YOU were dead, his one and only best friend! You obviously have no idea how he was doing after the message of your death! He didn't want to see any visitors, any friends, nobody. Noone had access to the club for more than ten millicycles. When I managed to get in, though, I... I never saw a program that was so... destroyed internally. He could barely move, looked awfully exhausted, since he hadn't ingested energy the whole time long, not only once, because... You know, he wanted to let himself derezz... slowly, bit by bit. Fortunately, I found him before it was too late and finally could induce him to recharge. There... he also told me about you. About, how beautiful you were and what a loose tongue you have had!" He laughed. "Well, apparently he didn't exaggerate."  
Susan smiled lightly, but let the corners of her mouth sink again then.  
She had known that the message of her death had affected Zuse back then, but that it'd been that severe... She hadn't been aware of that. What had she done to him? How would she have reacted, if she had thought Zuse were dead? It would have been unbearable. And she had bound this burden on him for almost 800 years. And now she was yelling at him for something that hasn't been his fault.  
Susan wearily rubbed her face. "I... I didn't know anything of that..."  
"Well, now you know it." Kyto eyed her for a moment and then sat down exactly like before.  
Susan looked down at him. Like he behaved now, he strongly reminded her of the old Kyto.  
Slowly she sat down next to him. "You are good friends, right? Otherwise you wouldn't have come here to defend Castor."  
He nodded. "Yes, he's my best friend. After all Castor has been the one who activated me and I am so grateful for that. He also left it up to me to choose concerning Kyto's memories, since he had to remove the memory storage at the start process, so that their wouldn't be additional conplications. He asked me if he should put the storage into my system again, but I refused. I wanted to be an independent program, not follow in the steps of someone else, you understand? I didn't want to be someone's successor. I wanted to be myself and build up my own life. Castor made that possible. He had been there for me, supported me..." He sighed deeply. "That he didn't tell me about your return hurt me therefore, but it's understandable. I mean, one does not speak about something like that through a normal communication line. Especially now that CLU monitors everything..."  
A thought hit Susan's mind. "That's exactly why I wanted to meet you at the Ultra File." Kyto looked at her. "CLU suppresses everyone here and now that I am back eventually, I want to do something about that. Castor told me that you know members of the various resistance groups in Tron City, is that right?" He nodded, listening attentively. "I want you to assemble all of them at one place, at least one of each resistance. There I will try to unite them..."  
"Hm... That'll be difficult. Not the assemblage, that's no problem for me. But I doubt that they will cooperate with each other. Besides, how are you going to manage this? You must no show yourself openly, do you?"  
"I'm not sure yet. Have to think about it. But you are accepting the job, right"  
He smirked. "What will you give me in return?"  
"What are you getting usually?"  
"Depends on the work I have to do. You know what? I'll make an exeption, since you're my hero, kind of.", he laughed, stood up and held his hand out to her.  
She hoisted herself up on it. "Tell me...", she raised her voice after a short pause of silence. "What did Castor tell you about Kyto?"  
"You mean about the... real Kyto?"  
She smiled tenderly. "About the other Kyto."  
He smiled back. The woman he had heard so many heroic stories of and who had been a bit of a rolemodel to him for hundreds of cycles accepted him as an independent program now. A great feeling. "He said that he had never seen a more loyal program, as well to himself as to you."  
She looked at him in surprise. "Castor said THAT?"  
"Year, why?"  
"Well... He and Kyto... didn't really like each other..."  
He laughed. "Oh, he told me that too. But he also made clear that Kyto had been a nice guy, with a clean conscience and quite modest... not the way I am."  
"Yeah, I noticed that... By the way, I am really sorry for everything I said..."  
"Forgiven and forgotten, you hero, you. Besides, may I pay you a compliment?"  
"Uh, sure. If you don't take the hero-thing as such already."  
"I was serious when telling you that Castor has a very good taste." He grinned, eyeing her demonstratively.  
She laughed. "You are so damn unlike the old Kyto!"  
"Hey, Castor told me that Kyto had a crush on you. Am I not allowed to carry on the tradition on a... not-emotional basis?"  
"Yeeeeeeah-Nope, better not." She looked away a bit sheepishly. "Can I call you Kay? It's kind of confusing when I say Kyto to you, even though you look like him. Would you mind that?"  
He smiled down at her. "Of course not. Everyone, except for Castor, call me Kay anyway." He took a deep breath of fresh air, before saying: "I'll go now, ask around for the resistance-meeting."  
"Alright." She looked up. "And I have to visit someone..."  
Kyto followed her gaze, whereupon his smile grew bigger. "Do that. Well then, see you." He timidly held out his hand to her.  
Susan smirked in amusement, raising one brow, and pulled him into a hug.  
"Wow, that was... cute.", he said stunned as they moved apart.  
"Yeah, it was kinda awkward, sorry. I just wanted to try it, you know, if it feels like it did with the old Kyto."  
"And?"  
"Not really. His suit wasn't that tight that one can feel so... much..."  
He laughed and left.

* * *

Susan couldn't detect him anywhere in the club. There were only 2 possibilites: Either, Zuse was not here, which was highly doubtable, since he left his guests 'unattended' very seldom, or he was in his lounge. However, it was difficult to get up there without his permission or without attract too much attention from the programs here. The only opportunity would be to ask Shaddix, who, as she knew, had a button under the counter of the big bar for letting the stairs to the lounge hover down. But she wasn't sure if she should reveal herself before him yet, still wore her disguise outfit everywhere outside the resistance base.  
So she now leant with her back against the bar, fixing her gaze on the lounge and trying hard to think of an other solution.  
"All alone here?", the friendly voice behind her interrupted her thoughts.  
"Uh..." With her head bowed, so that the black hood shadowed her face, she halfway turned to Shaddix. "Yeah. I wanted to meet somebody here..."  
"And the guy doesn't show up, eh?"  
"You might say that."  
Seeing his nice expression made her happy. He was one of her favourite programs on the Grid. Always a joke in stock, cool and mostly in a good mood. Similar to Kevin Flynn. He was a bro for Susan. She didn't like it to hide her real self from him.  
"Oh well, that's the way it is. You want to plant a kiss on some and spit on others.", Shaddix said with a half-grin.  
Susan smiled widely. "And then there's the ones where you just do both!"  
"The best of all!", he replied with a laugh. "Man, I'll drink to that!"  
He pushed a luminous blue drink over to her, taking a glass for himself too. While she was sipping on it, he eyed her.  
"Do you come to the EOLC often?"  
"Not anymore recently."  
"Hm... 'Cause you kinda look familiar to me..."  
She turned away from him lightly. "Oh, uhm... really?"  
Susan was searching for an exit from this situation in the opposing direction, suddenly spotting Gem coming out of the elevator and tottering into the club.  
"Oh man, HER again...", she heard Shaddix sigh behind her.  
Gem looked at him, pointing up, and he nodded with a faked smile on his lips. As he was feeling the button under the counter, he quietly said: "Conceited bitch with airs and graces... Always finds faults with my drinks which leads us back to the topic 'spit on' or now rather 'spit into'..."  
There the stairs to Zuse's private lounge already hovered down and Gem put her foot on it.  
"So, is it possible that you-" Shaddix looked at the empty stool, where the program with the hood had sat on, in confusion.  
Susan, in the meantime, fought through the guests in the club, in order to catch her chance. When she reached Gem on the stairs, she quickly said: "Sorry, Gem, it's important!", left the confused siren stand there and ran past her to the lounge.  
Zuse stood at his bar, his back facing her. Apparently he was just preparing some drinks, but had still noticed someone entering.  
He turned around with a grin on his face. "It didn't take as much time as I-" When he spotted Susan instead of the expected Gem, he got stuck in his movement and the grin fell.  
"He-Hello, Susan..."  
"Hey...", she answered meekly.  
Zuse put the drinks down and slowly walked around the bar. "What are you doing here?", he asked cautiously.  
She bit her bottom lip, looking to the ground. "I have to talk to you..." Then she looked up again. "Zuse, I..." She quickly approached him, holding her hands up in appeasement. "I am so sorry for what I said. Really!"  
He gave her a puzzled look. "Are you serious?"  
"Yes! Kay came to me and told me about the true reason why you lied to me. Besides, I just figured what I've done to you with my pretended death! I am so damn sorry!" She buried her face into his chest, pressing him against herself.  
Zuse was totally thunderstruck.  
All the time he had addressed reproaches to himself, permanently had to think of the fact that he lied to her and that she probably wouldn't forgive him. He didn't count with HER apologising to HIM.  
So the embracement now felt incredibly good, freed him from his evil thoughts.  
He sighed with relief, wrapping his arms around her. "There is absolutely nothing to apologise for, precious.", he whispered into her hair. "I am just happy that you forgive me."  
She lifted her head, looking him into his eyes. "You really aren't mad at me anymore?"  
He eyed her with a smile and breathed then: "I never was, dear. How could I ever be seriously angry with you?"  
She laughed and hugged him again.  
As they moved apart again, Zuse asked: "Kyto came to you to defend me?"  
"Yes. Obviously you're very close."  
He smiled, looking away in thoughts. Then he looked into her eyes again. "Is everything all right again? Back to normal?"  
"I hope so!"  
"Good..." Zuse grinned. "Because I am still deliriously happy about your return..." He put his hands on her hips, pushing her back, so that they navigated to the couches. "How about we forget about this incident and continue where we left off this morning?"  
Susan smirked. "You mean at 'A bit is not enough for Zuse'?", she asked quietly, as she made herself comfortable without breaking eyecontact.  
He laughed, letting her pull him down gently, so that he was on top of her. "Yes, exactly..."  
And there their lips met again.  
'Best. Reconciliation. EVER.", it flashed through Susan's mind and she pulled him even closer.  
Suddenly they heard quick footsteps and Shaddix' voice rang out: "Castor! There just was a chic who totally reminded me of-" They bobbed up and the bartender stopped dead in his tracks at the entrance to the lounge. "... Susan..."  
They stared at eachother. Then Zuse and Susan exchanged looks and he slowly climbed off of her, whereupon she stood up and smiled widely.  
He clasped his hands in front of his face, laughing: "Dude, I can't believe it... SUSAN!"  
"SHADDIIIX!"  
She threw herself into his arms with a laugh, squeezing him, and he cuddled her like a bear.


	7. 6 On the Same Team (pt2)

_**Author's Note: Aaaand here we go! The 2nd Part of this chap! I just have to say that this one is packed with epicness *_***_

_**ENJOY AND REVIEW!**_

**END OF LINE**

* * *

**/On the Same Team (pt 2)/**

"You think it will work?"  
Susan looked into the mirror Zuse gave her and did her rumpled hair.  
"Most certainly the assembling. Kyto is a dab hand in something like that." Zuse sat down next to her, helping her with a few strands that she didn't really know where to put.  
"What exactly is Kyto's occupation? Is he a 'spy' only?", Susan asked meanwhile.  
"Well, with regard to his programming he is the same as the old Kyto, of course, thus a mechanic. And he is a great mechanic. I let him tune my light roadster once and now it is running better than ever."  
"Did you pay him for that?"  
While Zuse still fiddled about her hair, he smirked. "In a way..."  
Susan laughed. "Oh, that is why you two had this, let's say, exciting conversation in the Ultra File!"  
He kept grinning and eyed her finished hair one more time. "Above all he is my informant or mediator, depending on what I need most at the moment. How he gets hold of all the required information is his business. I heard that now and then he gets paid for the entertainment he offers a number of programmes gladly, but that is none of my doing. He is free to do whatever he wants and I guess he would never do it anyway, if he was uncomfortable with it. He just likes to be the centre of attention. Similar to... me." Then he became serious again. "To bring it back to the previous topic... The assemblage will take place, beyond question, however, I doubt that you will be able to unify the resistances. These organisations constantly lock horns because of trifles. Plus, you have to do it as someone else. Susan must not show herself under any circumstances, otherwise CLU would get scent of the whole thing..."  
Thoughtfully, Susan looked away.  
She still had no plan, how to accomplish her goal. She needed an idea, a stroke of a genius, that would make the resistance groups forget about their dissensions. But in the moment, she was at a loss.  
There the signal of the elevator rang out.  
Susan sighed. "Gem again?"  
"No, I believe she is sore, since we wanted to meet here, but you prevented this rendezvous to come about."  
Kyto came up the stairs. "Hey, sweeties! All differences smoothed over?"  
Zuse nodded, stood up and strolled over to the little bar in the lounge.  
Kyto came to a stand in front of Susan, smiling at her. Then he frowned, slowly reached out, took a strand of her hair in his hand and put it down in the other direction. "So you two just had sex?", he asked with a grin.  
Susan looked at him in shock. "Helloooo? One doesn't say something like that! Besides, where do you want to know that from? From my hair? That's illogical! I could've been training, after that I don't look perfect either!"  
He laughed. "No, but I know this relaxed expression on Castor's face only too well."  
Both turned to Zuse, who paused at mixing a drink and punished Kyto with an angry look. "Childish, simply childish."  
Kyto turned to Susan again. "Mission accomplished, Suzie."  
She raised her brows in surprise. "So fast?"  
"I get everything done fast."  
"Much to my chagrin I can confirm that.", Zuse interposed, sipping on his drink.  
Kyto squinnied, nodding admiringly. "Touché..."  
Zuse raised his glass to him, letting them continue their talking.  
"I spoke to many representatives of the resistance organizations and all of them agreed to attend the meeting. If they will behave civilized there, is another question that is beyond my knowledge..."  
Susan stood up, putting her Hand on Kyto's shoulder. "It's all right, Kay. You've done a very good job, I'm proud of you."  
With a triumphant smile he turned to Zuse. "See? SHE likes how I get things done." He stuck his tongue out at Kyto, who held up his hand, speaking in a mimicking tone: "I beg you, this is childish, Castor!"  
Susan giggled before asking: "When and where will the meeting take place?"  
"There's an old stockhouse in the east of the top level with a large hall that offers enough space for all. I already sent the exact coordinates to your console in the base. The resistances will assemble there in two millicycles."  
Susan looked away in thoughts and said then: "Alright. I think, I should return to the base now to inform the others and ponder on my speech. Is that okay for you, Castor?"  
He carried out an unconcerned gesture with his hand. "Absolutely, dear."  
She quickly came over to him, planting a peck on his cheek and whispered: "See ya, honey." Turning to Kyto she said: "Ciao, Kaykay. Oh, and if you call me Suzie again without reference to the Crocodile Rock or with the adjunct 'Q', I'll shave your head with my disc, got it?"  
He blinked. "With reference to what?"  
She laughed, cheerfully waved at him and Zuse, and left the club.  
Before Kyto left too, Zuse beckoned him over to him.  
"Kyto, I want you to attend to this meeting and give Susan a hand, okay?"  
"I thought you detest the resistances?"  
"I do, but I do not detest Susan. If I am not in the position to help her, then at least someone from my own ranks."  
Kyto nodded. "Okay. I wanted to go there anyway..."  
"Why?", Zuse asked confused.  
"I don't know... I'm interested in the whole thing, somehow..."  
Zuse eyed him. "All right. But take care and don't do anything stupid. We had that before. I do not want you to be involved with CLU's programmes again and end like your predecessor, is that understood?"  
"Got it.", Kyto replied, kissed Zuse shortly and left.

* * *

The hall was chock-full. The programs gabbed in their own little groups, giving the others sceptical looks, so that it was quite loud in the big room.  
Susan hid behind the corner which she'd peeked around to see what was going on in there. This babel of voices dinned in her head. "Oh man, there're so damn many of them...", she sighed nervously.  
"Yeah, about 500.", Bartik said, looking at the crowd in fascination.  
She gave him an angry look. "Thanks, pal, that really helps."  
Again she peeked past the wall, shivering lightly.  
Her and her troop already watched all of the representatives arrivier for about a quarter millicycle. So far, they had registered 23 various resistance groups and more were coming. She wanted all and now she got all. Though, Susan didn't count with so many. Therefore, she was totally excited now, chewing on her bottom lip as she was viewing the large amount of programs.  
"Pleased with my work?"  
Susan turned around, looking into Kyto's happy face. When he saw her anxious expression, he positioned himself close to her, observing the crowd as well.  
"I really don't know how to manage that...", she murmured.  
"I though you wanted as many as possible to come."  
"I do... But I never spoke to such a big audience. And this here is extremely important, probably our only chance to combine them all... Everything is dependent on me, you know?"  
"Oh, you'll manage! I'm pretty sure of that."  
She looked into his green eyes. "I'm glad you're here, Kay."  
He smiled at her. "I would never miss out on something that big!"  
"Something that big...", she repeated in thoughts. Then she held her head, closing her eyes and whimpered: "Maaaan!" Her usually vast self-confidence now shrank to the size of a mouse.  
Kyto once again gazed over the resistance members. "Hm... Maybe you should think of something funny. Yeah, imagine them naked!", he laughed. Then his gaze rested on one program and he began to Grün seductively. "For example, this guy there... I'll be right back.", he said and hastened off.  
"K-Kay! Hey, dammit, don't leave me alone!" Though, he made no move to come back or even turn around. "KAY!"  
Then he disappeared into the crowd.  
Susan snorted, running her fingers through her hair.  
"Everyone's here now.", Bartik Said, as he came to a stand next to her. "We should begin."  
"Okay. I'm ready in a moment. Wait for my sign..."  
He nodded and let her alone again.  
With closed eyes, she took a deep breath. As she lifted her lids again, Susan sighted her reflexion in the reflective surface of the wall next to her. She wore her disguise, which made her feel uncomfortable. She couldn't be herself openly, had to hide. It sucked...  
Susan caught her breath.  
Zuse. She simply should think of Zuse, then she would feel better.  
On the other side of the hall she spotted some sort of alcove, where Bartik and others from her troop were standing and watching her. She gave them a nod and there the room already got dimmed a bit, except for a platform which was still well-lit. The programs in the hall fell silent.  
Susan stepped onto the bright stage to small white lectern.  
As she was looking ahead on her audience, she just swallowed her flurry and began to speak loudly and with a light smile on her lips: "Greetings, programs. First of all I want to thank you all for following my call and coming in such large numbers. This assemblage, however, is not only for me of prime importance, it concerns the entire Grid. We all fight against CLU, who-"  
There one of the resistance members shouted: "Who are you and why did we have to come?!"  
"I did not force any of you to appear here.", she replied quickly. Her nervousness was already gone utterly. "I am the leader of the restistance in Argon City, Gallium and the new populated Bostrum colonies. And we are here today... to arrange the unification of all resistances, in order to-"  
Suddenly it became very loud in the large room. The programs began to boo her and bawled things like "Such a nonsense!" or "Never!"  
Susan held her hands up to quieten them down. "Please, calm down! It is necessary that you understa-"  
"I will never work together with these lame west-city-revolutionaries!", one in the back shouted and got acclaimed for that on the one hand, on the other hand he received indignant bellow.  
"It is...", Susan began, but the full-throatedly disputing masses drowned everything she said.  
What should she do now? These programs were not even willing to cooperate, how could they ever form a unified whole?  
Susan closed her eyes angrily.  
In each second these squabblers were butting heads with each other CLU won more and more on power and probably concocted even more dark plans. And this should be Tron City's resistance? These programs here had no idea how counterproductive ist was what they did here! They name themselves revolutionaries, but rather than fighting CLU, they fought each other, risking more lives of programs who could be brought to the arena in the meantime instead of taking action.  
There her patience snapped.  
She turned her back to the audience, taking her disc into her right and rammed ist into the wall at the back of the stage, which created an enormously loud and shrill cracking sound and the lights flickered. The programs in the room covered their ears with shock, staring at her.  
Susan took her disc out again and turned around. Furiously, she looked at the programs for a moment, before exclaiming: "Is that what CLU has to fight against? Is it?! If yes I unfortunately have to tell you that he will win. That what you just showed me is the reason why I give up hope on a better life sometimes. You don't fight for the Grid, no, you do ist for yourselves, so that you don't get killed like many others, so that you can be proud of yourselves for being a revelutionary, but believe me, you can't. You need somebody who shows you that there is something to fight for? You can have it!"  
She took the transparent wafer out of her disc and put it into the input on her back again, whereupon her appearance changed.  
As soon as the programs realised who was standing in front of them, their jaws dropped. After the first moments of shock, some whispered: "Susan... Is it really...? Yes, there, the circuitry sign on her chest!... I thought she was-"  
"Dead? Yes, I was. I felt like being dead for a long time because of CLU's oppression. Day by day I had to hide and witness how many of my friends were taken away from me. But you know what? I WILL NOT HIDE ANYMORE!" Susan threw the wafer to the ground and trod on it, so that it broke. "I cannot stand on the sidelines anymore, watch how thousands of programs get executed without stepping in! I will not carry this burden with me anymore! Will not let CLU get off scot-free! Can you do that? No, you can't, otherwise you wouldn't be here. But do you know how CLU can manage all this? Because scattered fighters are no game for his troops! Scattered resistances achieve nothing! You argue because of trivia and fail to notice the bare essentials: The enemy is not here among us revolutionaries, it is out there and his name CLU! The longer we wait, the stronger he gets! Bit by bit he breaks us, bit by bit he exterminates the resistance, until noone of us is left!"  
Many in the audience looked to the ground ruefully, others nodded as they were listening.  
"But if we faced him as ONE UNIT, a wall he cannot break in half, then CLU would finally become aware of the fact what he is without the backing of the programs: a nothing! He couldn't do anything against so many opponents! An expanded, organised revolution he couldn't contain! Therefore I say: Fight side by side, brace one another! UNIFY, RESISTANCES OF THE GRID!"  
Now the majority was nodding, several shouted: "Yes!"  
"TOGETHER only we proceed! TOGETHER we can defeat CLU! TOGETHER we will change the world!"  
The crowd began to applaud.  
"For Tron!", Susan shouted, throwing her fist into the air and everyone followed suit.  
"For FLYNN!"  
Cheering.  
"For all Users out there!"  
Louder cheering.  
"And above all..."  
Susan paused, the audience fell silent. The tension in the air palpable.  
As loud as she could, Susan screamed: "FOR. OUR. FREEDOM!"  
The uproar was defeaning. The masses cheered and cheered, totally flipped out.  
Susan bowed her head lightly, before leaving the stage.  
After that everything went fast.  
The room they had organised for the enrolment to the new resistance was filled in a split second. Everyone wanted to be part of it, dissolved their resistance groups and joined the only one remaining, the one with Susan Gifford as its leader. They also informed their other members by their communication systems, showed them Susan's speech and brought even more members thereby.  
Susan stood between two of the four tables, behind which members of her orginial troop were sitting, taking the discs of the programs who wanted to sign up to synchronise them and enlist Thome programs. She watched the proceedings carefully and the more programs got registered, the happier she got.  
Finally the first step to the change was set.  
She looked to her left, smiling at a program that just got its disc back after the enrolment. "Welcome to the Resistance.", she said.  
The woman smiled back and made room for the next one.  
Susan turned to the right.  
"Welcome to the Resistance.", she greeted the next.  
When she turned to the left again, she frowned.  
Kyto just put his disc onto the back again after the synchronisation. He lifted his head, spotting Susan, and slowly stepped closer to her. After short hesitation, he said: "Please, don't tell Castor..."  
She eyed him, nodded and just as he wanted to go, she grabbed his arm, looking into his eyes. "Welcome to the Resistance, my friend."  
After a while, where she was standing at the enrolment, greeting every new member, a program told her that there was someone waiting for her on the housetop. When she reached the roof, she spotted Zuse nervously pacing up and down.  
"What's the matter?", Susan asked.  
"What's the matter?!" Zuse swiftly came over to her, piercing her with the worried look of his silver eyes. "I heard about your speech. Don't get me wrong, it was perfect, totally served the purpose, but YOU UNMASKED YOURSELF! Now CLU will certainly get to know about your return and that you and your resistance could really harm him!"  
"He shall come.", Susan hissed. "I am not scared anymore. The hide-and-seek is over."  
Suddenly a cracking sound was to hear and a moment later everything around them was illuminated. They looked up to a high building next to the one they were standing on, laying eyes on Susan's circuitry sign that was displayed on it, just as on many other walls in the city.  
"Susan, this is extremely dangerous...", Zuse whispered, while staring at the huge circuitry sign.  
"Don't worry." She put her hand on his shoulder. "I know what I'm doing."

* * *

**_Author's Note: BADABAAAM EPIC SPEECH O_O_**


	8. 7 Deadline

_**Author's Note: !And here we go again! New Chap! Such Susan. Very Action. WOW O_O**_

_**ENJOY AND REVIEW! (Please)**_

**END OF LINE**

* * *

**/Deadline/**

She didn't let herself go like this for a long time.  
By sulking and many compliments, Susan had been able to convince Zuse of leaving her and the other revolutionaries the End Of Line Club to celebrate their triumph after the conflation of the resistances.  
Finally CLU's overthrow was within reach. After almost 950 cycles, almost a millennium, someone plucked up the courage to say, which has been clear in the mind of many programs and which united all of them. Overnight, Susan, as the official leader and symbol of the biggest resistance that has ever existed, became the most powerful woman on the whole Grid, the mightiest weapon against the despotism. And she was proud of it. It was good that everyone knew that she was back.  
Therefore, she wanted to relax for now, enjoying the moment. At least she tried, because Zuse himself, after reluctantly granting her and her friends access to the club, had gone to Gem's Penthouse. He had said that he had to apologise to her for the inconvenience Susan had caused her.  
But this hadn't been the only reason why he had left that early. Susan knew that he didn't approve the way she approached the subject. He considered the revelation of herself as too dangerous, though he couldn't keep her from any of her plans. On the one hand it annoyed Susan that he tried to tell her what to do and what not, as if she wasn't able to protect herself, on the other hand it was pleasant, since it showed that he worried about her. It gave her the feeling to be something special for him. She would have liked to hug him for that, but he had gone so fast that she had to spare that.  
And where did he go to? To this Gem. This pretty white-haired slowly got on Susan's nerves. Admittedly, Susan had been a bit rude to the siren, indeed, had caused her a reboot and blown her date with Zuse, but still... She didn't like the thought of the two being together.  
That was why the funny conversations with her friends, Kyto, Bartik and the others, cheered her up even more.  
"And then he said to this monster-guy: 'DON'T YOU DARE TO TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, YOU FUCK!' And quietly to me: 'Arris, beat him up!'", Susan ended one of her favourite anecdotes about the old Kyto, when she had lived with him on the streets.  
Kay and the others almost died of laughing, just as Susan.  
"Oh man, I'll get some more drinks for us... Ey, Shaddix!", Bartik shouted and went to the bar.  
Kyto sighed, leaning back in relaxation.  
Susan looked at him with a smile. "And how does it feel like to be part of a resistance the first time?"  
"Well, actually it's not my first time, but that was a long time ago... It feelsgrwat, Susan! It really makes me happy, so proud. I have the feeling to do something of importance, you know what I mean?'  
She nodded.  
The urge to give meaning to his life, the pride towards his actions. The parallels to the old Kyto became more and more visible.  
"Hey, what do you think of this girl up there?" He pointed at a dancing program.  
"Nice change of topic.", she laughed. "But, no, look at her expression. I don't think that she would let you have a go with her..."  
"Hm..." He stood up quickly. "Challenge accepted!"  
Susan nearly had to laugh out loud, as she watched him closing his eyes at breathing in, and at exhaling his innocent, happy face became predatory. He gave her a nod and in a flowing movement and swinging hips he strolled over to the dancefloor.  
Susan gazed after him for a moment and then looked around with eased expression. Everywhere stood happy revolutionaries that drank to the fusion of the resistances. Her friends the DJs synchronously nodded to the beat they created and as they spotted her, Susan gave them a thumbs-up, which the DJs replied to with a bow.  
Susan leant back, closing her eyes. Could this daycycle become any better?  
There she perceived the hissing sound of the elevator doors and a shocked murmer went through the programs in the club.  
Susan lifted her lids.  
3 sentries stood at the entrance. One of them looked at a luminous screen coming out of his arm, then into her direction. He indicated to his colleagues that she was the program they were searching for and there the three already marched towards her.  
A few programs obstructed them.  
The leading sentry growled: "Out of the way, programs."  
A sudden tension was in the air.  
There some reached for their discs, the sentries followed suit.  
"Stop!"  
Everyone turned to Susan who wound through the programs with a light smile, coming to a stand in front of the sentries.  
"Is there a problem?", she asked calmly.  
"Program Susan Gifford?"  
"That's me, indeed."  
"You were found guilty of betrayal on CLU and will be placed under arrest. The liberator will decide your fate then."  
She eyed the program. "So you get me to CLU?", she asked, smirking. The sentry pointed wth his chin at her and the other two grabbed her arms. Again, the bystanding revolutionaries wanted to bear down on them, though Susan fobbed them off by shaking her head. While the sentries applied an orange glowing strap like handcuffs around her wrists, she said in a calm tone: "Everything's okay, guys. Don't worry."  
Then they pushed her forward to the elevator.  
Walking, she called: "Kay?"  
In a split second he was next to her with his disc in his hand, staring at the sentries. "Yes?"  
"Do me a favor and don't say a word to Castor, when he comes back. I don't want him to be falsely alarmed."  
"Falsely alarmed?!"  
She soothingly smiled at him. "I'm fine, really. I promise to be back soon. When I come, I want to be welcomed by a hard beat, so just keep playing music and don't bother yourselves with me. I'll take care of everything. Alone. Okay?"  
Kyto swallowed and then nodded hesitantly.  
Smiling brightly, Susan turned to the sentries. "Well, you cuties? Shall we?"

* * *

With his arm around Gem's waist Zuse entered the club.  
Already at coming in he noticed that something was wrong. No music was playing, almost nothing was to hear, since noone spoke.  
"Strange...", Zuse whispered with furrowed brow.  
"I'm not that surprised." Gem spoke in a lightly disparaging tone. "You said there would be revolutionaries here, right? Of course it's not as glamorous as usual, when such programs are prowling here."  
He tittered to himself.  
Gem shared his aversion towards the resistance and the Users, which made her even more likable for him. She was a lady, perfectly after his taste. Though, as he was reconciling with her in her bedroom earlier, he couldn't think of anything else than Susan. How could she be so foolish and place herself in such danger? Why couldn't she ever heed his advice?  
There he spotted Kyto at the bar, how he nervously tipped on the counter.  
He and Gem strolled over to him and Zuse carried out a sweeping gesture with his glass cane, before he said loudly with a grin: "What's the matter, Kay? I thought, you wanted to celebrate this glorious day!"  
When Kyto looked at him with a suffering expression and then away again, Zuse eyed him with a fake smile. What was wrong here?  
He looked around. "No music, no dance. These revolutionaries know how to revel, indeed, don't they, my frie-" There his smile fell abruptly, when he realised something. "Where is Susan?"  
Kyto draw a deep breath, though as he saw Bartik shaking his head, he closed his mouth again, attending to his drink.  
Zuse hastily looked around again, this time alarmed. The affected faces of the programs showed him that something really bad had happened. He relinquished his hold of Gem, leant forward to Kyto and asked emphatically: "Where. Is. Susan?"  
Kyto sighed and looked up, but Zuse grabbed his jaw, so that he had to face him. "Look at me when I am talking to you!", he hissed.  
There Kyto closed his eyes, sliding from the stool. "They came to get her, Castor.", he said, half desperate.  
"Damn, Kay! She said, we shouldn't-", Bartik shouted through the room.  
Though Kyto interrupted him angrily: "She left him in the dark once before! No more lying?"  
"Who came?", Zuse asked.  
Kyto turned at him again. "Sentries. And they're taking her to CLU."  
Zuse stood still for a moment, then turned on his heel and marched towards the elevator.  
Kyto ran after him. "Castor, wait! You must not help her!"  
"That none of you even tried to rescue her... Nefarious...", Zuse murmured furiously.  
"No, she said we shouldn't help her! Let her solve this on her own! Now stop!" Kyto put his hand on Zuse's shoulder, but he just shook it off.  
From behind there came a quiet "Oh man..." and there was already Shaddix, who had run around the Bar quickly, and now came to a stand in front of Zuse, holding him back. "Calm down, man..."  
"You want me to calm down?! Susan is taken to CLU! Am I the only one who is bothered about that?!"  
"No, of course not..." Shaddix spoke in a soothing voice. "Susan made it clear that she wants to take care of it on her own."  
"Apparently, Susan is not aware of-"  
"She is very well aware and you know that."  
Zuse breathed heavily, looking at Shaddix in despair. "I must not let her down..."  
"Hey, hey, hey, keep cool, Castor-Man." The bartender amicably put his arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer, so that only Zuse could hear what he said. "You don't let her down. You never did and never will. But, look, she WANTS to do that alone. And I think after all those cycles, after all this shit you two have gone through, she proved that she has it down pat. You really should trust her." Zuse looked to the ground in thoughts. Shaddix continued: "She looked very determined, Susan surely has some ace up her sleeve. Don't worry about this kiddo. She's a real man! She'll manage." He eyed Zuse shortly. "Everything's alright now, boss?" Zuse nodded weakly. Shaddix was right. He should trust her.  
"Okay..." The bartender smiled. "I guess, you could do with some shots now, eh, Compadre-Castoro?"  
Zuse laughed lightly and followed him to the bar, hiding his despondency and fear as good as possible. Hopefully, Susan was well. Now, he and the others couldn't do anything but wait, anyway.

* * *

CLU rubbed his hands impatiently.  
When he had received the message that Susan was alive, he couldn't believe it at first and dismissed it as stupid rumour. Though, as all these reports of circuitry- sign-graffiti in the city had reached him, it hit him like a slap in the face.  
Susan... she was alive... And this bastard Zuse hadn't told him anything, although he certainly had known it. Most probably Susan had visited him first. That he didn't acquaint him of her return was a serious violation of their agreement and he would have to punish him hard for that, which CLU was looking forward to.  
But at first he had to take care of HER.  
Of course he had let his sentries look for her in the End Of Line Club first, where she was found, indeed. She was so predictable... A clear disadvantage for her part.  
As he stood there in the top meeting room of the central office with hundreds of thoughts rushing through his mind, the doors opened suddenly and the sentries he had sent out came in with Susan in tow.  
He caught his breath.  
"Susan Gifford, Sir.", the sentry in the front said and beckoned the others forward, who dragged Susan with them.  
She herself smiled up to him in a complacent way. "Hello CLU."  
"Susan... So it's true. You're alive."  
"Seems like it, I fear." The she looked around shortly. "Y'know, with these thingy around my wrists I feel a bit uneasy. Would you mind if I made myself a bit more comfortable?"  
She didn't wait for an answer, kicked the sentry to her left with her knee in the gut, ducked the punch of the other and rammed her shoulder in his neck. The third got knocked out with a kick into his face, whereupon Susan turned around lightning-fast, bending forward, so that her stretched arms pointed up, whereby the disc blow of one of the two left sentries didn't hit her head as intended, but the luminous orange ribbon at her wirsts, parting it. She straightened herself, happily said: "Thank you!" and dealt auch a hard stroke against the sentry's head that he spun around and fell to the floor like a wet rag. Effortlessly she parried and dodged the attacks of the last one and then let the edge of her disc slide down his chest, whereupon he crumbled into pieces with an outcry of pain.  
Susan slowly put her disc back onto the input on her back and wiped the black streaks off her face. Then she turned to CLU, smirking. "Ah, way better!"  
CLU clapped his hands. "Bravo. Nice show."  
"Only for you, your majesty.", she replied, dropping a curtsey. While walking up to the wall next to her, she asked: "Is that you security system? The one you could activate that sentries go to your rescue if you're in difficulties?", pointing at a red flashing box, wherein she now pressed her disc in. "Oops." She turned to CLU again. "You look good."  
"You too.", he said in a bitter tone.  
"Thanks. Women like compliments, but I guess men do too, right?"  
CLU didn't answer, just stared at her as she approached him slowly.  
She grinned. "How are you?"  
He laughed. "You really wanna do smalltalk?"  
"Why not? Then the whole thing doesn't sound like hatred and disgust entirely like it used to." She looked around. "Oh, too bad. You don't have your beloved bodyguard Rinzler here. Or should I say Tron?"  
He frowned. "Where did you-?"  
"CLU, it hasn't been too difficult to get after you literally plonked him in front of me. How did you manage to reprogram him? Must have been a lot of work..."  
"It was."  
She eyed him for a moment, before continuing: "So, again: How are you? Tired of all the work as super-bigwig of the Grid? Do I have to worm everything out of you? How are you feeling? Angry, sad, happy, hungry... Talk to me, man."  
"How about: quite surprised. After all you ought to be dead."  
"Can't believe that you all fell for that... Although... Actually I can. It's been the plan. A good plan." Suddenly she laughed out loud. "O dear, it woud have been a perfect april fool's joke in the User world, wouldn't it? WOULDN'T IT?!" He squinned, as she doubled up with laughter, patting him on his back.  
Was she really that cool with it? Was she playing with him? Maybe she wasn't as predictable as in former days, changed in the 800 cycles they hadn't met, which would give her an advantage...  
When she calmed down, Susan looked into his eyes. "And? Did you mourn..." She pouted and smiled then widely. "... or party?"  
The corners of CLU's mouth raised a tiny little bit. "Hm... A bit of both."  
"Naughty boy...", Susan breathed, strolling around him with a seductive smile on her lips.  
Yes, she was definitely playing with him...  
"You changed, Susan...", he said quietly.  
"Hm..." She was to his left now, letting her looks wander over his body. "Just a bit. I learned to stay calm, even did some meditation exercises. They're very helpful. You, who takes so many things personally, should try it too, you little choleric." Then she came to a stand in front of him. "But feel free to take THAT personally."  
There Susan dealt a roundhouse kick against his head, causing him to hit the floor hard. He growled of fury and darted at her. She fought off his strokes, hit him into his stomach, so that he squirmed forward, grabbed his pate and made it meet her knee. But CLU was dogged, didn't give up. He took the disc from his back and tried to strike her with it. And he was fast. Susan had to concentrate to avoid the orange edge.  
"You trained.", she panted with a grin.  
She managed to push CLU away from her and dashed towards the big window behind him. He screamed: "You can't get away, coward!" and came after her. Though, instead of jumping through, she ran a few steps up on it, turned in the air and let her fist hail down on him. Again he straightened himself after quickly recovering from that and swung at her, Susan taking it with her arms up in a defensive pose and a wide grin on her face.  
Then suddenly, when she had enough of studying his deficient technique, she gave everything back at full power, hit all vulnerable spots, showed him her effective, perfectly flawless technique, her speed, her agility. She kneed him into the side, grasped his hips and hurled him forwards, using his own weight in doing so, so that he lay on his back, groaning with pain.  
Now the act followed which Susan had been waiting for for more than 800 cycles.  
As she was sitting astride on him, she dealt him one blow after the other, one more powerful than the previous. She stood up again, grabbed him by his administrator robe and threw him against the wall, where she kicked into his stomach again. And again. And again. There CLU caught hold of her foot, but she just pushed off with the other leg and kicked into his face, whereupon he fell to the ground whilst Susan gracefully landed in a squatting position. She took a deep breath and charged at CLU again. She grasped his hair and hit his head hard against the floor one, two, three, four times. Then she took him by his shoulders and lifted him up, pressing her elbow against his neck and holding his wrists together behind his back with the other hand.  
Both panted, CLU more out of pain. At a few spots of his face tiny cubes fell off.  
A last time he tried to escape Susan's grasp, but she just squeezed his wrists even tighter.  
"There, there, don't get defiant... You're good, really... But I just play in a completely different league." She took her disc from her back and held it under his chin. "What a pity for you that Rinzler isn't here, eh?"  
"You mean Tron?", he brought forth.  
"No, I mean Rinzler!", she hissed full of anger, pressing her nails into CLU's wrists, which made him clench his teeth.  
"Tron would never be like this. Rinzler may be better at fighting, yes, but only because he has no conscience, because he doesn't care how much he hurts a program. A command is a command. And that connects me with Tron. Back then I would have never done something like that to you, no matter what you did, because it's against the rules of a fair fight, because I didn't want to stoop to your level. But you know what? Fuck that! You deserve to suffer! For the ISOs, for Tron, for Flynn, for Kyto! And above all..." She let her disc slowly glide against his thoat, which caused sparks and bits crumble away and made CLU scream. "... above all for ME!"  
Suddenly the pain ceased.  
CLU opened his eyes, gasping for air, and spotted Susan who now stood a bit away from him, watching him.  
"Yes, CLU, you deserve to suffer. And therefore..." She put her disc into the input on the wall behind her, tipping orders into the now opened screen while talking. "... I will not kill you. Even though I would love to slash you open from your belly button to your throught now. It wouldn't change anything. Someone of your henchmen would take the helm and approach everything the way you did. Everything would stay the same. But I want a change. And I want fun. And it's far more revolutionary and funnier to overthrow you and watch..." She ended her work, put her disc on her back and came as close as possible to CLU's face. "... YOUR fall."  
CLU was foaming with rage, but he could barely move because of his injuries, just rasp: "And how are you going to accomplish that? There is noone else who dares to fight against me. No resistance I couldn't crush easily."  
She began to grin and after a short pause, she said with syrupy voice: "Your time is over CLU. Look at this as a declaration of war from me to you. Oh, and of you try to arrest me again, please don't do that in front others again. That's a bit embarrassing, okay?" She gave him a pat on his cheek, before she turned around, touching the wall from earlier that lit up for a moment as she leisurely walked to the exit. "End of Line, man!"

* * *

Zuse stood next to the big window in the club, staring out of it in thoughts.  
He had apologised to Gem, since he had to break his promise. As long as Susan was in danger, he simply couldn't concentrate on anyone but her. Most of all it bothered him that he couldn't help her. Why did she want to get this done on her own? Why couldn't he support her? Why couldn't he protect her?  
He looked at the central office deep under the End Of Line Club. Apart from the Tron City Tower it was the highest building here. If Susan was in there right now.  
Suddenly something was happening.  
The front wall of the central office formed cracks and then everything around it got illuminated by a huge mixture of Tron's and Susan's circuitry sign, three squares around a triangle, that flaunted on it.  
Zuse's eyes widened. "Kay!"  
"What's the matter?"  
Zuse pointed out of the window and Kyto's jaw dropped. "GUYS!"  
The others ran over to them, looking over their shoulder curiously.  
Suddenly there was the hiss of the elevator doors. Everyone turned around quickly. Zuse pushed a few programs aside to be able to see it too and froze.  
"Didn't I say I wanna be welcomed by a hard beat?", Susan said with a grin.


End file.
